Tales of the Kaleidoscope
by Hero Slayer
Summary: We wander the infinite alternate realities through the Second Magic. Expect comedy.
1. Shiro's Childhood

Summary: Just having some fun with Fate Stay Night. These shouldn't be taken seriously at all.

I don't own Fate Stay Night or any other spin off that came out of it. I believe those are owned by Type Moon.

Fate Stay/Night

Tales of the Kaleidoscope or The Fate Omake Dojo

Presents

Fate Omake 1: Shiro's Childhood

**...**

Hidden from sight, the hunter kept his eyes on the intruder. He had been watching this man since the moment he had entered the town. He just knew that the man would attempt some horrible crime, and then he would be there to stop it. His eyes narrowed as the seemingly innocent tourist lazily tosses a bread wrapper on the ground after finishing off the snack. That was his cue.

A red blur fell from a tree and rushed the litterer. A flash of metal later and a knife had been stabbed into the man's arm. The man screamed at the sudden injury and frantically looked around for the assailant, but he couldn't see anyone. Suddenly a blow to the back of his knee brought him down. Dazed from the fall the man looked up to see the person who had assaulted him.

He gulped as a very large and very sharp kitchen knife was pointed at his face. A small red headed boy about nine or ten years old glared down at the man from behind the kitchen utensil turned weapon. "Littering is a crime." Seeing the man nod the tiny red head assumed he got the message. He nodded to himself on a job well done before running off with a cry of, "For Justice!"

The Tourist pushed himself into a sitting position and looked down at the knife embedded in his arm in disbelief. "What the hell was that?"

A woman that was passing by decided to take pity on the man and explained. "That would be Emiya Shirou. He's a little crazy."

"A little crazy? He stabbed me!" The tourist wasn't really sure if he could be scared or angry. He looked around to see if the kid was still watching him.

The woman shook her head and smiled at the boy that was threatening a high school student with another knife, "Yes, you see his father taught him to punish criminals and protect people. Unfortunately he never really taught him restraint. So the boy runs around and stabs people if they do any crime, big or small. Just yesterday I saw him stab a boy in the leg for jaywalking."

The tourist stared at the women. "Shouldn't someone stop him?" A small boy carrying around knifes and stabbing people couldn't be normal. There was no way the cops here would let that go, right?

"They can't find where the boy hides the knifes." The woman shrugged, "He seems to have an unlimited supply of them."

A scream was heard in the distance, "Foul mouthed fiend, take this!"

"Argh!"

"For right justice!"

The woman shook her head, "The town has gotten quite used to it." She smiled at the tourist before continuing on her way. Still she gave the man one last bit of advice. "Oh, and you should probably pick up that garbage. Shirou is known to stab people twice for not getting the message."

The man's eyes widened at that. He quickly grabbed the bread wrapper and started running to the train station. This town was crazy.

Shirou watched the man run off after picking up his trash. He nodded to himself, another criminal was taught that it didn't pay to do crime. The red headed boy looked down at his right hand. It was empty as he had just stabbed a teen that had been swearing over his phone. A small red light appeared in his hand and after a few moments of concentration an exact copy of the knife he had just used was in his hands.

The boy smiled happily and began to whistle while he twirled the knife. As Shirou made his way home he thought about his father. His father was a superhero, a Mage that traveled the world and helped people with his magic. He was going to be just like Kiritsugu. He was going to be a superhero.

Shirou had no doubt that being a superhero was going to be hard. His father said that his word was dangerous and he had almost died many times. So the son of Kiritsugu decided to start small. He couldn't travel the world yet (stupid police. He could take care of himself just fine), but he could protect his home town. So Shirou picked up the sharpest knife he could find and went off to fight criminals.

The fighting crime part was harder than he thought. He had spent just under a week stabbing people before his knife broke. That had been a harsh blow to Shirou. He didn't only use that knife to stab criminals, but he needed that to cook. It only got worse when his father came home and found out what had happened to the kitchen knife. So Shirou needed a new weapon. He tried using a practice sword like Fuji-nee did, but it didn't work as well as a knife did.

It wasn't until a week after his father had came home that Shirou found a way to fix his weapon problem. His father had given him another Magecraft lesson before leaving again. That lesson had included a mention of Projection. Shirou didn't really understand it, but from what he heard he could make something out of nothing. The thought of summoning knifes out of nowhere and then stabbing criminals was too cool to pass up.

Shirou tried making small things first. It had taken him weeks, but he eventually created a glass. It had disappeared after a few seconds, but it was progress. He then tried to make a gun like that one that Kiritsugu had locked in a case. That hadn't worked too well. The one time he had gotten close to making the pistol, he passed out from the pain that followed. Apparently he overloaded the circuit that he created.

Kiritsugu found Shirou in the dojo passed out and twitching from the pain. The man panicked and did everything he could to help Shirou recover. It was after that incident that Shirou's father took Shirou's Magecraft lessons a bit more seriously. The man needed to teach Shirou how to properly open his Magic Circuits or the boy would kill himself.

The lessons took up a good deal of Shirou's time but the boy was thrilled that he was making some progress. It was months later that Shirou tried Projection again, but those months of proper training were worth it. He could Project objects without making his head feel like it exploded.

Now armed with an unlimited number of knifes (well, as long as he had Od left), Shirou went once more to fight crime.

A sudden crash threw Shirou out of his thoughts. A small crowd of boys were surrounding a girl with purple hair. A scowl worked it's way onto Shirou's face and another knife appeared in his free hand. As he stamped his way towards the group of boys a thought went through his head.

'A hero's work is never done.'

**...**

A/N: This was fun to write. I like to think every child has at one point in their life wanted to be a superhero. But honestly, children are innocent and well, stupid. If you give a child a weapon and point him at a evil person they'll probably try to hurt the evil person because that's how their mind works. So when I remembered that Shirou was serious about becoming a superhero as a child I wondered how would he go and do something like that?

This was originally supposed to be a child solider Shirou but I thought about it and found myself wanting to write a more humorous story. I thought about going with a more Full Metal Panic route but figured this was a funnier.

As for the knife thing. Well, Shirou has been known to be good at Projection magic even before the Canon story of Fate Stay Night. I'm pretty sure that the shed that he works in is filled with several objects that he projected for practice. Since he's not looking for a great Projection, it should be simple for him to Project a knife to stab people with.

So with that I bit you adios. I have the next Omake planned out so you can expect it in a week or so... probably...


	2. Magical Knight Kaleido Ruby!

Summary: Just having some fun with Fate Stay Night. These shouldn't be taken seriously at all.

I don't own Fate Stay Night or any other spin off that came out of it. I believe those are owned by Type Moon.

Fate Stay/Night

Tales of the Kaleidoscope or The Fate Omake Dojo

Presents

Fate Omake 2: Magical Knight Kaleido Archer?

**...**

Let's have a look at some alternate universes.

What? Don't give me that look. Type Moon has given us such a wonderful device to make such things plausible.

Here we have a familiar story. Two Magi under the employment of a Sorcerer are deployed to Japan to recover a powerful set of cards. Their arsenal included mage craft, several gems embedded with magic, and the most important thing, a pair of powerful magic devices.

Both of the Magus were geniuses in their own right, and the devices that they carried offered them nearly an infinite amount of power. It should have been an easy job. Should is the key word here.

In the sky, two girls dressed in ridiculous costumes and holding magical wands were spamming beam attacks at each other. These two should be familiar to any Fate Stay Night fans.

Tohsaka Rin took a moment to stabilize her flight and to yell at her rival across from her. "Damn you Luvia! Why are you attacking me? Have you forgotten that we're supposed to work together on this mission?"

Luviagelita Edelfelt threw her head back and laughed evilly at her rival. "This mission is mine and mine alone." She rounded back for another run. "Even you won't be able to take all of these."

A shockwave rippled across the night sky as a barrage of magical blasts were barely blocked by various barriers that were hastily thrown up.

Yes the problem was that the two Magus, Tohsaka Rin and Luviagelita Edelfelt, were rivals. And not just any rivals, no these two are the stupid kind of rivals. The ones that will do anything and everything to humiliate and/or maim the other. Another explosion ripped through the sky as the two traded off another set of powerful spells.

Luckily, while the magical devices these two wielded were powerful, they were also had minds of their own. The two KaleidoSticks named Ruby and Sapphire were really tired of being used in such a way.

"So that's how you feel." A now slightly singed Rin had by now developed a rather bad nervous twitch. The enraged magical girl reached into her costume and pulled out a card. An elaborate card that had a picture of a bowman on it. "Then let me give you your last rites."

"She pulled out a class card!" Luvia pulled out a similar card of her own. "Then I won't hold back."

"Class Card: Archer/Lancer" Both of the magical cried out as they slapped their respective cards to the wands they held. "Include!"

...

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

Both girls looked at their respective Kaleidosticks in confusion as nothing happened.

"Hey Ruby? Include!" Rin frantically slapped the Class Card against the KaledoStick. "Why won't you Include?"

"What's wrong Sapphire?" Across from her Luvia had a similar problem.

The two KaleidoSticks pulled themselves from the girls grips and floated before them. Ruby's stars raised themselves into a very good imitation of a shrug. "Well isn't this great. Now we have to cut off out contracts with you."

"Eh?"

Both Ruby and Sapphire gave a scolding to the two Magi about how they should have been working together and then left them to find new masters to do the job Rin and Luvia would not.

Incidentally, this broke the contract between the devices and the girls and left both of the girls in mid air without the ability to fly. Normally this would be akin to murder, but both of these girls were genius magic users so the fall would simply harm them. Thus free of guilt of murder both Ruby and Sapphire flew off to find new masters before the two girls recovered from their fall.

**...**

In the 'Canon' story, one Illyasviel von Einzbern would make a contract with Ruby and become the magical girl. But this wouldn't be an alternate universe if the same thing happened, would it.

The scene starts out in an identical fashion. Ilya is bathing and looks out the window at the sound of an explosion. At the same time, in a classic anime maneuver, one Emiya Shiro walks into the room for his own bath seeing as the lights are off. Shiro stammers that the lights were off and that he thought no one was in the room while Ilya is completely mortified that her older brother (that she had not so innocent feelings for) had walked in on her.

"Kyaaaaaaaaaa- Gah!" Ilya's scream of embarrassment is interrupted by an object colliding with her skull.

Now a simple change in reaction, one that is not even that different is all that is needed to make this universe different. Instead of ducking her head and curling her body as she scream which would let Ruby pass back and crash into Shiro, Ilya backs up against the wall and covers her body with her hands.

Thus the KaleidoStick had knocked Ilya unconscious leaving a bewildered and embarrassed Shiro alone with Ruby.

Oh what fun this will be.

**...**

Out in the middle of Fuyuki city two separate girls felt a sudden chill run down their backs. It stopped both of them from their rage filled search for a moment as they tried to remember where they had felt that same chill form. Had Rin and Luvia been in a coherent state of mind they would have remembered this chill as when they one Emiya Shiro did something and one of them, maybe both of them if they were particularly unlucky, would end up in a situation not out of place in a dating sim game.

All over the various universes that held the cast of Fate Stay Night Emiya Shiro's (and a few Counter Guardians known as EMIYA) felt a shudder as one of their own had done something stupid or had fate screw them over. They all gave the Shiro a moment of prayer before they were somehow pulled out of their thoughts by a member of the harem to be...

Lucky bastards.

**...**

"Whoops, it looks like I knocked out my candidate." The floating magical babble looked down at the young girl that was unconscious on the floor. It then pointed itself up as if to look at Shiro. "All that's left is the social outcast, oh dear, oh dear. I guess beggars can't be choosers."

It had taken Shiro a few moments to gather himself. "What the heck are you?" Yes, no one said that Emiya Shiro was an eloquent speaker.

"Ah, my apologies. I barged in here without introducing myself." The floating ring bent itself in a good impression of a bow. "Nice to meet you. I am the magical stick of love and justice, Magical Ruby-chan!"

Shiro just stared at the thing. "Excuse me?"

"You have been chosen to be my next wielder in the eternal battle for love and justice."

That made Shiro choke. He had seen enough to Ilya's shows to recognized that particular motto. "No, no, no! I am not becoming some sort of Magical... boy" He choked out. "I'm already a Magus you see-"

"A Magus, even better." Ruby nodded and floated in front of Shiro's face, "My previous contract holder was a magus. While I would have prefered to be partnered to the lovely girl that's sprawled out on the floor." Shiro blushed and quickly used a towel to cover Ilya's body. "But you'll do quite nicely."

Shiro glared up at the floating device. "If you haven't noticed I haven't agreed to this yet."

Ruby bobbed up and down as if agreeing with Shiro before rushing forward and crashing into the boy's face. "Ow!" The teen clutched his face and was surprised to feel blood. He looked down at his hand and saw that the impact had caused his nose to bleed slightly.

Ruby had taken the chance and gathered a few drops of the blood to create a contract with Shiro. "Hehe, contract complete."

Shiro glared at the floating toy and grabbed it's handle to throw it out the window. "Out!" He drew back his arm for the throw but was surprised when his arm resisted the movement. "What?" He struggled to move his arm, but the appendage was no longer under his control.

"Hehehe," Ruby laughed evilly at the pansy, I mean, his new owner. "Certified contract by blood, contract verified by conscious contact, and a heart yearning for justice as the power source."

"Ah." Shiro couldn't control his body anymore. All of his muscles had locked up and were moving on their own. Both of his arms moved to bring the wand in front of him.

"Now for the final requirement. What is your name?" Ruby cackled in glee.

"Shi-" Shiro bit his lip as he tried to fight whatever compulsion the device was using but he couldn't beat it. "Sh-shiro... Emiya Shiro!"

"Master Registered. Now I am at your service!" The wand began to glow and Shiro's meager magic senses were overwhelmed by the sheer power that the device was giving off. "Now then to the fun part, though we'll have to do something a little different. Prism Trance, connecting to alternate realities! Downloading alternate memory matrix!"

A flare of light blinded Shiro and he felt something wash over his body. His head felt like it was on fire as information from an infinite amount of alternate Shiro's entered his brain. But just as soon as it came the pain and magic faded.

"Introducing the newest Magical Knight, Emiya!" Ruby cried out in triumph.

Shiro blinked as he looked down at himself. He had been basically naked a few moments before, but now he was wearing some sort of armor and overcoat. His skin looked darker too. He ran over to the mirror and choked at the sight of his reflection. "My hair!"

Not only his hair, but his eyes had been changed too. The bright red hair had become almost snow white, and his formally brown eyes had become grey. His skin had gotten a few shades darker too.

"This if my first time creating a knight and I do have to say I did a good job." Ruby boasted. The little trinket was proud of his work. He had even come up with a good name. Magical Knight sounded much better than Magical Boy. "You look rather dashing if I say so myself. It matches you completely, unlike that magical hag that is lurking around here somewhere."

A hand reached inside the room from the window and applied a death grip to Ruby. A chilling voice laughed bitterly from outside. "Oh, a hag am I?"

A sharp tug had pulled the device and Shiro who still could not let go of the magical wand was pulled with it. "Wah!"

"Hmm, well I can't say I'm not disappointed that you survived." Ruby's voice was far too cheerful for Shiro's ears.

"Like there was any chance that I would die from that." The chilling voice that seemed to bleed out revenge and anger sounded familiar to the newly made Magical Knight.

"Come here Ruby! You need to learn a lesson about how you treat your master!"

"Ah, I don't need a lesson on that." Shiro groaned and finally picked himself up, something that was a lot harder when your dominant arm was being controlled by a crazy magical wand. He looked up to see who the heck was arguing with Ruby.

"Tohsaka?" The name flowed out of his mouth naturally despite the fact that he hadn't seen the girl for a year.

That tone, it couldn't be. The hair was different and he had gotten a lot darker in the year she had been gone but it was definitely.

"E-E-Emiya-kun?-!" Tohsaka stuttered as she finally got a good luck at the hapless boy that had been tricked into this. "W-w-wha...h-how?"

"W-wait, this is a mistake! I was tricked!" Somehow Shiro felt that he needed to get this straightened out. If he said the wrong thing, bad things would happen. Well, bad things happened to happen when he was around Tohsaka either way, but this was a different kind of bad. "I don't even understand what is going on."

"Ah... I get the idea." Tohsaka had pressed his hand to her face as if trying to push the headache that was building away. She turned to Shiro and looked away for a moment. "Well, I need that thing back. So if you could just return it to me."

"Y-yeah." Shiro gladly tried to hand the wand back to the girl. He tried to, but the thing wouldn't leave his grip. The hand that was holding Ruby would not listen to Shiro and kept a death grip on the wand.

"Huu huu huu." The device chuckled evilly at the duo's frantic attempts to get the wand out of Shiro's grip. "It's useless, useless I tell you. The master's information, magical and biological have all been downloaded into me. As long as I will it the contract cannot be broken." The device looked smug at the last statement. It was proud of it's full proof plan.

"Da!" Tohsaka grabbed Ruby and smashed the wand into the wall next to them. "I see, then I guess I have to force you to change masters!"

"A passionate person as usual" The device seemed unaffected by the assault the girl had just put it through. It twisted around and faced Shiro. "But, does this honestly look like a defender of love and justice to you?"

"That again?" It seemed that this was a familiar argument for Tohsaka.

"Yes, that. Well, it seems like we have no choice. Shiro if you would please?" The magical device had responded by having Shiro somehow blast the girl. "This is Shiro's answer. I would never give this wonderful device to a crazy Tsundere like you."

Shiro choked and yelled at the device. "What the hell are you saying? Don't put words into my mouth!"

"Hmm, it seems like this wasn't enough to put her down."

"What was that you bastard?" Unfortunately, this had broken whatever straw that was holding back Tohsaka's rage and she had started throwing spells at him. Almost as if she had a gun built into her finger the female Magus fired black bullets at him in a rage. If it weren't for the magical shield that Ruby seemed to create then he would be spending the next morning half dead from the many Gandr curses that had been fired at him. "Die!"

"Ruby's Magical Barrier. A rank. It includes but is not limited to physical protection, accelerated healing, increased strength and as long as you're transformed it's always active." Ruby bragged as Tohsaka fired off more Gandr curses only for them to slam uselessly against the barrier. It baffled Shiro how easily the device blocked the powerful spells that the girl threw at him. For an amateur like him creating something as complicated as a barrier was impossible, yet this little device was throwing out magic that he would never be able to cast like they were play things. "The new hero Shiro is not something that a normal human can beat."

"Stop provoking her!"

Tohsaka sighed and pressed a fist to her forehead. It looked like the rage from before had been all used up and she had gotten her level head back. It never ceased to amaze Shiro how fast this girl could shift moods. One second she could be cool headed and the next she would be a raging volcano. She pulled out something from her pocket and flicked it into the air. The gem arced into the air before exploding in a flash of light.

"An explosion?" Ruby's shield protected him from any damage but that wasn't the point of the attack. "No, it's a distraction!"

Shiro didn't need the wand to tell him that. The training he had with Fuji-Nee had paid off as he sensed Tohsaka to his side. He barely managed to take a step to the side before the girl fired off another spell at point blank range. That step however was enough for the girl's finger to be outside of Ruby's barrier so the blast merely sent Shiro's head snapping back from the impact. He rolled back onto his feet and barely managed to throw up his arms as Tohsaka threw a magically charged punch. The fist seemed to explode on contact as another gem was used at point blank range to blast Shiro backwards.

"Gah!" He slide to a stop and fell to one knee. He placed a hand over his stomach and winced as he felt the area protest from the pressure. The accelerated healing portion of Ruby's barrier made itself useful as the pain from the attack quickly faded.

"It seems the difference in experience is too much." Ruby danced in his hand, "Well, that just means we'll have to get right to training."

Tohsaka frowned at the duo for a moment before sighing again.

"Oh, are you giving up?" Ruby dragged Shiro closer to Tohsaka, "That's a good idea as even violence won't change my mind. Shiro is my master now."

"That's fine." Tohsaka raised a hand to throw her hair behind her.

"Eh?"

"Eh?" Both me and Ruby looked confused at the girl's casual acceptance of the fact.

"I would have rather avoid this, but Shiro." The boy swallowed as the girl stared at him intensely. "Listen carefully this is important."

Tohsaka walked closer to him and Shiro took a step backwards only to trip and fall on his back. Tohsaka pointed at him and the boy swallowed again. Every nerve and instinct in his body was screaming at him that this was a bad situation.

"From now on, you will be my Servant!" Tohsaka looked way as a blush appeared on her face. "No complaints okay. If you want to blame anyone you should blame Ruby."

"Eh?" Shiro stared at the girl in front of him and could only wonder what the hell he had gotten himself into.

**...**

A/N: Yes this is Kaleido Liner Prisma Ilya with Shiro as the protagainist. I'll be showing odd parts of this world every now and then as the Kaleidostick in Shiro's hands just seems to be an idea that never stops giving.

My original idea was to have Shiro aware of magic and everything and following Ilya around to protect her. He bumbles and screws up when he sees that Ilya can handle it, but when they find something they can't fight he would go Archer on the Class card they were fighting.

This would have been alluded too with Ilya last seeing Shiro run in front of her when Caster rains down lasers on all of them and the last thing she sees is a flash of pink. That would have been revealed as Shiro Tracing Rio Aias.

Alas, that idea never really panned out. This on the other hand seemed like it had plenty of funny things I can throw in. Should I have Miyu appear and have Shiro seemed flustered with the girl's attachment to him? What kind of effects would the Class Cards effect him? Instead of finding Miyu what if Sapphire found a different host like Ruby did, like on Matoh Sakura? What kind of dating sim like events will Shiro end up in with Rin, Luvia, Miyu, and Ilya?

See plenty of ideas. I'll probably have some clips of this in a week or so. I'm not really sure if I want to throw this out as a full story.


	3. MultiDimensional Refraction Phenomen

Summary: Just having some fun with Fate Stay Night. These shouldn't be taken seriously at all.

I don't own Fate Stay Night or any other spin off that came out of it. I believe those are owned by Type Moon.

Fate Stay/Night

Tales of the Kaleidoscope or The Fate Omake Dojo

Presents

Fate Omake 3: Multi-Dimensional Refraction Phenomenon

**...**

Looking back, Shiro really should have seen this coming.

It had all started so innocently. Rin had asked him to help her with an experiment. Something that happened pretty often considering that he was her apprentice. He had entered the workshop to see her pouring over some really old texts and what seemed to be blueprints. That should have been the first warning. Rin's magic rarely included blueprints of any kind. Her magic research rarely had to do with constructs or devices.

Curious, he asked her what she was working on.

"This? Well this is something that my family has been working on for generations. It was a gift from the Sorcerer Zelretch. Apparently it's some sort of Magic Crest that is the key to the Second Magic." She explained absent mindly as she made a few more corrections.

Shiro choked at the disregard to one of the five True Magics. "You mean the Kaleidoscope?"

Rin nodded, "Yes, I found it recently and I was hoping that you could help me make a breakthrough with this."

And so it all started with the fact that Shiro's girlfriend/master/tsundere wanted him to help her recreate the god damned Second Magic. She had had this great idea for it too. She wasn't just going to go head on, no she was going to have Shiro conjure up the Magic Crest that was used to manipulate the Kaleidoscope and then study that. It was a bit more complicated than that, but I'd rather not have to write the specifics.

So with blueprints, research, a lot of trial and error, more research, and more Prana transfer rituals that were probably deemed necessary, Shiro had a semi working copy of the Jewel Sword Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg.

Too bad that semi working is not good enough for using something like the Second Magic.

Shiro looked at his copy of the Jeweled Sword curiously and waved it around to test its balance. In all honestly, the dagger was useless as a weapon. It was more ornament then anything and he doubted that he had the talent to use the dagger for anything near its intended use.

"Hey Tohsaka. How does this thing work anyways? Do you just yell out Jewel Sword Kischur Zelretch Schweinorg or something?" The amateur magus asked as he took another experimental swing with the blade.

What happened next was simply mind boggling. The creation of the Jewel Sword had not been perfect. Normally when utilizing his Reality Marble, Shiro used the exact amount of Od needed to create the weapon and nothing more. He didn't have the magical stores to waste any more than was necessary for each weapon. Luckily his Reality Marble and the stolen memories he had taken from Archer allowed him to roughly gauge how much each weapon needed.

When he created this copy of the Jewel Sword, he was working off of blueprints and trial and error. He had honestly expected the Magic Crest to need a large amount of energy to create and thus each time he attempted to create the weapon he used a large amount of Od. This was unnecessary. The Jewel Sword was a complex structure, but its true power was that it needed little Prana from its user. It drew its energy from the infinite realms that made up the multi verse.

Thus when Shiro spoke the blades true name, it used the left over Prana from its creation to attempt to draw energies from the multi verse. Unfortunately the copy was not even close to a fully functioning model and shattered when it drew too much Prana from the multi verse. This left a small tear in the space next to Emiya Shiro that led to possibly an infinite amount of places and times.

Obviously, Shiro fell into the tear.

And thus Shiro's journey across the multiverse started. Armed with a Reality Marble, subpar magic circuits and a copy of the Jewel Sword he cuts his way across different worlds hoping to find his own. Yeah, like that is going to happen anytime soon.

**Kaleido Ruby**

Shiro didn't really know what was worse. The fact that his counterpart was an idiot that would probably feel quite at home in some harem anime or the fact that the clone of the girl he had failed to save was attempting to molest him after calling dibs.

"Damnit Kuro, get off of Onii-chan!" Ilya or rather Kaleido Ruby grabbed her counterpart and pulled her off of him.

Free from the girl's grasps, Shiro let out a breath of relief. The girl was nothing if not determined. He watched Ilya somehow managed to hogtie Kuro while Ruby watched and shouted encouragement with a sigh. This world was crazy.

He had arrived at this world and thought that he finally made it back home. The city looked like Fuyuki City and after a bit of wondering there was no site of anything like Kamen Rider Archer or anything ridiculous like that. So he decided that he would take a trip home before calling Rin to tell her he was finally back.

He found that the Emiya Estate had been changed. Gone was the large traditional styled Japanese house and in its place was a normal house. Weary of what he would find, Shiro decided that maybe he had been too hasty in declaring this his home and went out to explore this world some more. He walked across the street and found a large western manor that he knew wasn't there before. Curiously enough it had a large Boundary Field around it to preventing him from looking inside.

He found the front gate to be open and so looked inside. What he saw spurred the dimensional traveler into action.

The large manor had been destroyed. It lay in smoking wreckage as if someone had knocked the supports out from under it. And in the front yard were three people. A woman dressed in a business suit and wearing gloves. Bazett Fraga McRemitz, he had seen her in a few worlds. Most of the time she was some sort of law enforcement officer. A police woman or a detective. In all of them she was a powerful fighter that rarely needed saving.

Beside her lay a set of twins in ridiculous outfits. The first was a girl that laid face down on the ground seeming unconscious. She was dressed in some sort of copy of Archer's outfit and judging from the swords that littered the battlefield she had copied more than Archer's look.

The other girl was one that was much more familiar to Shiro. Ilya dressed in what had to have been the most ridiculous outfit he had seen in a long while. Now Shiro never could rid himself of his soft spot for Ilya. Sure the girl had tried to off him with her insane Servant, but she was also a little girl that he had failed to save. Not to mention most Ilya's he met in his travels were cute, helpful and upbeat.

Enraged at seeing the girl beaten, Shiro rushed forward and quickly chanted out a familiar aria.

"My body is made of swords..."

His Reality Marble had worked like a charm. Sure Bazett had kicked his ass around for the first few minutes of the fight before Shiro had resorted to using some of his Noble Phantasms, and yes, he was pretty sure that the look Kuro had given him while using Excalibur to kick the Enforcer around was going to haunt his dreams for a while, but his Reality Marble had done the job.

Shiro was broken out of his thoughts by several things occurring at once. The first thing was the door being blown open and Rin and Luvia, both dirty and wearing torn clothing, rushed into the room and stared at him. Ilya had squawked at the sudden entrance and flipped off of Kuro in surprise, which also revealed her underwear to Shiro. Finally Kuro had somehow cut herself free and lunged at him. The familiar feeling of a girl's lips meeting his along with the odd feeling of having his Prana drained followed. He wasn't really sure which of these the catalyst for an explosion that happened was.

One destroyed Emiya house, two versions of his little sister figure, one black hoping to bed him, one white hoping to stop the former, two crazy maid Homunculi after his blood, one counter part of his dead father figure, and an adult version of Ilya chasing after him, several Gandr spells and explosive magic gems from two Tsundere Magus, and one really confused native Emiya Shiro later, Shiro had decided on an action.

He was so getting the hell out of this Universe.

(AN: This is just for the Crack. I think having a second Shiro around Kuro and Kaliedo Ilya would just cause so much havoc, but this was just the first thing that came to mind when I thought of Shiro in an alternate reality.)

**Negima**

Shiro was pretty damn sure that the Root was against him.

There was a long list of things that had been pretty good hints to the fact that the wellspring of creation liked to royally screw him over, like the fact that his family died in a horrible fire that forever distorted his view on life, or that his father figure had died leaving him with an empty home and an impossible idea, or even the entire Holy Grail War and meeting the twisted future (or alternate version) of himself that had gone crazy from untold amounts of fighting who was determined to end it all by causing a time paradox by killing himself in the past.

But none of those things really mattered to Shiro. No, they all had their pros to go along with their cons. Even this terrible trip through out every known universe out there was a good learning experience.

The final nail in the coffin that made Shiro realize that the Root of All Things was messing with him personally had to do with the four year old red haired child that had spent the last hour sobbing about his father into his chest.

It had started out rather routine for Shiro. Cut a hole in the fabric of reality, fall into new universe. See local village under attack, go find demons attack villagers, and then summoning a large amount of magical swords to cut them down. Swords of all sizes were fired like bullets out of a machinegun and torn through the demons.

It had actually gotten much worse at that point considering that he was going to run out of Prana much faster than he was going to run out of Demons to stick with magical swords. He was debating on retreating since the entire village was on fire and there didn't seem to be any more survivors when he heard yelling and screaming. He moved quickly and skewered a Demon that had been sneaking up on a crying child clutching what looked like a toy wand. Next to the shell shocked child was a group of older mages that had already been turned to stone.

The thought that he could save someone was all that Shiro needed to act. He quickly launched Kanshou and Bakuya into two nearby Demons and quickly replaced them to slice through another smaller Demon.

Shiro learn something valuable in this battle. There were multiple types of demons and they came in all kinds of forms. Some had skin that was harder than steel which meant he had to rely on more powerful and magical blades, and some were just so damn powerful that he had trouble cutting them at all. In a half desperate attempt to cut through one of those powerful Higher Demons he had Traced Excalibur itself. The Sword of Promised Victory was properly labeled. Shiro cut through hordes of demons, and probably a good amount of the country side with the Holy Blade. The victory was short lived as more demons converged on Shiro and his circuits burned him from the inside out from over exertion. Death was almost certain, and the sting of failure pained Shiro more than his Magic Circuits burning his nerves out from the inside out.

Then _he_ came.

In too much pain from his magic circuits burning out, Shiro leaned heavily on another sword he had summoned before. His last attack had destroyed a good amount of demons, but there was simply no end to the monsters. A large demon raised a fist the size of a car and prepared to smash Shiro into paste. But it never landed. A man in cloak appeared out of nowhere and stopped the demon's fist with one arm. In his other he held a large wooden staff with bandages wrapped around the angled end. The cloak he was wearing made his features hard to make out, the only thing he could work out was that the man had red hair under the hood of the cloak.

The red haired man that moved faster than anything he had even began to think possible. Lancer was the fastest class of Servant, but he would have been a snail compared to this man. Berserker was a monster of strength and power, but every blow that this man threw exceeded the towering giant's power by a long shot. Caster was a Witch that lived in the time when the Gods themselves walked on the earth and her magic reflected it. Shiro had no doubt that this man was in the same class of magic as the Witch. While she could rain lasers down on the earth, this man called forth lightning with every movement. A wave of his hand called a storm of fierce wings and lightning, and quick changed incantation of Greek or Latin allowed the man to summon lightning that consumed the powerful Demons with ease.

Shiro, and little Negi next to him, watched the man systematically tear through the Demons with devastating skill and power.

The Magus didn't know how long he watched the man tear through the demons, but by the time the man was done, the village was fully consumed by fire and the man was standing on a pile of dead demons. The man was holding the last demon of the horde up by its neck. Shiro heard the demon say something to the man before its neck was snapped. The noise seemed to startle the child beside him, and the kid latched onto Shiro and buried his face into the older teen's chest. Shiro took a moment to wrap a hand around the kid and held up the last sword he had left. He was unsure what this man was doing, but instinct told him that fighting this man was suicide. Unfortunately, Shiro still had not gathered a survival instinct and he ignored the internal cry to retreat and held his ground. He was going to save this child if it was the last thing he did.

The man's eyes widened at the action and Shiro wasn't sure, but Shiro could have sworn that he saw the man's shoulders slumped. Then as fast as he saw it, the expression was gone. It was replaced with shock and fear. Before the man could even yell out, Shiro had sensed the Demon that was sneaking up on him and the child.

The sword that Shiro held flew out of his hands and shot towards the demon's head. But the blade was just a mundane thing. It held no magical properties shattered against the demon's skin. The demon opened its mouth to fire some sort of beam attack and Shiro covered the child with his body. There was a flash of light and nothing happen. Shiro looked up to see two people standing in front of him. A young woman that looked to be around his own age, and an old man that was dressed in robes and a pointed hat.

"Onee-chan."

Shiro looked down at the child in his arms. It looked like these two were protecting this child. Good, that meant he could leave the child with them. Then the woman's screamed as her petrified legs shattered, cutting that option off. The woman fell to the ground, and the child ran out of his arms to the woman's side.

The demon didn't let this stop him. The large demon and his companions charged forward. In response, Shiro dug deep and Traced one last time. Both Kanshou and Bakuya formed in his hands again and on reflex that were not his own twisted into the air. Both blades sank deep into the demon's body as the old man next to him chanted an aria of some sort. The demon was distracted by the twin swords that were imbedded in its chest and had no way of avoiding the powerful sealing magic that consumed it and the companion that followed it.

A small bottle with runes engraved on it fell to the ground where the demons used to be.

Shiro fell to his knees and attempted to suppress the sheer amount of pain that his body was feeling. He had practically burned out his magic circuits before Tracing Excalibur, and creating Kanshou and Bakuya again had pushed him beyond his limits. The nerves in his body screamed in pain and he felt like lava was flowing through his veins rather than blood.

"Those are some impressive blades you were throwing around."

Shiro looked up at the old man next to him. The man had also been hit by the petrifaction spell that the demon had fired. The woman that Negi was crying over had managed to block the majority of the spell, and her petrifaction was slow and with aid could be stopped. The old man was too far gone. His clothes and the majority of his body had already turned to stone.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about healing magic then?" Shiro just shook his head. With the sheer amount of injuries that he sustained on a daily basis he probably should have learned something about healing, but he had always healed fast so it was never necessary. "That would be too much to ask wouldn't it. This was probably done by a person with a grudge against the village. There were many particular people that came here because of Nagi."

Shiro wondered what kind of grudge would cause someone to summon a horde of demons on a village.

"The lesser demons that were summoned were too strong and too high in numbers for us to battle." The old man turned his gaze to Shiro and the lost teen found that he was unable to look away. "Take the boy and his sister away. I'm too far gone to have this spell broken, but those two must be saved. But little Negi… I made a promise to an idiot a long time ago that I would protect him."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure he's safe." What else could Shiro say?

"Good, I leave them in your hands then." The old man smiled and that final expression was frozen as the petrifaction spell finished its work.

Shiro looked back at Negi to find that the man from before was standing over him. Shiro tried to rush over and put his body between the man and Negi, but his legs gave out on the first step. His muscles were pulp from both the battle and from his constant use of Projection. Shiro cursed himself and started to drag his body over to the boy to protect him.

"I'm sorry. It seems that I was too slow in coming to this village."

Shiro let out a breath of relief. He had expected that the man was here to help, but it was reassuring to hear it in words. To his surprise, the child stood up and pointed a small wand at the man.

The man seemed surprised for a moment. "You…"

That was enough to spook the child, and he closed his eyes in hear.

"I see, you're Negi aren't you?" The man smiled and patted the child on the head before handing him the staff he carried declaring it a memento.

"Father?" It seems that the little kid figured it out. Shiro had noticed that the man's hair was the exact same shade as the boy's.

"There's no time left." The man declared solemnly before floating away. "I really am sorry."

Shiro pushed himself to his feet and shout at the man. "So that's it. You're just going to leave your son alone!"

The man shot a grin at towards Shiro. "Not alone, I'm sure a man like you'll raise him up fine."

Shiro gaped at the man and wondered how he came up with that conclusion when he looked back at the moments that he probably saw. Shiro fighting his ass off to protect Negi, when he pulled Negi back and covered him with his body, and the promise to the old man to protect Negi. Crap, now he could see where the man would get the wrong idea.

Negi had spent the next twenty minutes crying about his father and clutching the staff that the man left him. The next twenty minutes were spent crying in Shiro's arms after the Magus had recovered enough to move and comfort the boy. After the boy had cried himself to sleep, Shiro was left alone surrounded by the ruins of a village, a girl that was in desperate need of healing, and a little boy who he not only promised to protect, but it seems his father had expected him to raise.

"Rin was right. This whole saving thing sucks."

(AN: This is probably the only serious piece in the group. Mainly because Negi has such a tragic back story and the only other place I could think of throwing Shiro in was fighting Jack Rakan. Hero of a Thousand Faces versus Unlimited Blade Works. Then I realized that Jack would just punch Shiro and blow him back to his home dimension in several pieces and went with this. I'll probably write a companion piece to this somewhere else where either Negi follows Shiro in his journey around the Multiverse, or where Shiro raises Negi. Don't really know which or if either.)

**Kingdom Hearts**

Shiro looked down at the sword that he held in his hands. It was a magical blade and a powerful one at that. It took power from the heart of the user and depending on the what was read it could take different forms and give different powers. It opened basically any lock and could lock almost any door, and amplified the magic of it's user. Despite it's shape, it was also absurdly sharp.

"Why is it shaped like a key?"

Sora tilted his head and shrugged. "It's a keyblade." The spiky haired teen answered as if was the answer to all of Shiro's questions. "So why wouldn't it be shaped like a key."

"I... have seen millions of swords. Swords that have withstood the ages, swords that could tear mountains apart, and even swords that were bigger than their own wielder... but this has to be the stupidest looking sword in my collection." In the keyblades defense, it took the shape to match the heart of it's wielder when it didn't have a catalyst key chain to take form from.

The key chain itself was pretty simple. It was of Kanshou and Bakuya crossed together. The blades were still his favorite even though he had thousands more powerful and they were a constant reminder to Shiro to continue following his ideals even through the worst of times.

No, the key chain was fine. It was tasteful, simple and symbolic.

The blade itself was the problem. It seemed like the key blade had taken the strongest feeling in his heart and chose to make a key like blade out of it. So it obviously reflected the Reality Marble that was Shiro's only skill.

"It couldn't have taken it's form from something else. Like Yin Yang, or metal, I would have even taken archery as a motif."

On one hand, it was nice to be able to use magic other than his rather limited arsenal of Magecraft or relying on his Reality Marble. On the other he wasn't sure he wanted to run around with a giant sized key that looked like hundreds of tiny swords that were fused together to make the rough shape of a key. It looked like something a grade schooler would make for art class.

Shiro wondered what kind of universe would relying on a large key shaped sword as it's ultimate weapon. Then Shiro remembered that he was riding on a spaceship made of gummi that ran on smiles. A spaceship that was being driven by talking anthropomorphic dog (or at least he thought it was a dog) while a a large talking duck was teaching him the basics of magic.

Shiro only hoped that the next world they landed on wouldn't be as disorienting as the Pride Lands.

Little did he know that Sora's idea of cheering up the newest keyblade wielder involved an underwater world, turning into a mermaid and a musical where Shiro had to participate.

Despite the fact that he could now do magic and added another powerful sword to his Reality Marble, the Magus gladly left that universe with no intentions of returning. Between the transforming, odd talking animals and people eating books, Shiro had had enough of this Verse.

(A/N: Because I was playing Birth By Sleep again trying to beat the secret boss when the thought came to me. What would Shiro's keyblade look like? Then also I like to torture Shiro and what could be worse that unexpectedly being turned into a mermaid and having to participate in a cheesy off Disney musical.)


	4. Magical Knight Kaleido Archer 2

Summary: Just having some fun with Fate Stay Night. These shouldn't be taken seriously at all.

I don't own Fate Stay Night or any other spin off that came out of it. I believe those are owned by Type Moon.

Fate Stay/Night

Tales of the Kaleidoscope or The Fate Omake Dojo

Presents

Fate Omake 4: Kaliedo Archer- Class Card Mayhem

We continue to follow Ruby and Archer

...

The last few days of Emiya Shirou's life had been chaotic. He had been tricked into becoming some sort of magical knight by a floating Magical toy and then forced to help Tohsaka collect the class cards. If that had not been enough another girl that had been recruited to be his rival or something like that. That hadn't sounded too bad. Except that he had to have his life saved by a girl half his age.

"I can't believe that they're willing to just let a little girl into these battles."

Ruby laughed at Shirou's complaint. "Says the boy that needed to be saved from his first class card battle."

Shirou groaned. He did not want to remember that.

...

It all started the day after Shirou made (read: was tricking into) a contract with the Kaleidostick Ruby.

_Shirou had discovered the note in his shoebox with a little confusion and nervousness. The last time he had found a note in his shoe box there had been two of them and both of them stated the same place and time for the meeting. He really didn't remember much of the meeting other than that Sakura had to help him to the nurse to get patched up. According to the girl he had been found smoking in a small crater when she found him. So it was perfectly justified that Shirou was feeling a little weary of what the note had to say._

_"Well partner, I had my doubts before but this clenches my choice. To think that you could cause the pure feelings of youth in a maiden." Ruby chortled from his place on Shirou's bag._

_"Ruby shut up." The teen ignored the magical device as it started on a rant about the pure feelings that a maiden must have for him. "Let's see, go to the school field at midnight. If you don't go... I'll kill you." Shiro twitched as he read the note and wondered why he had the sudden feeling of deja vu._

_Both Shirou and Ruby both shared a look before sighing._

_"Tohsaka."_

...

"You're right on time." Rin looked up from her watch to see Shirou approaching the school yard. He had already transformed into Kaleido Archer. She took a moment to judge the changes that the transformation had made. Shirou had become several shades tanner, his red hair had been turned to a snow white and when he got close enough she noticed that his normally bright brown eyes had been dulled to a grey. His simple long shirt and jean combo was replaced by a set of black armor and some sort of red overcoat. All in all it made him look a bit dashing. She hadn't really noticed it before with all the excitement of tracking down Ruby but she was well aware of it now.

"I hate to leave a lady waiting." Shirou deadpanned. He was honestly a little afraid that Tohsaka would try to enforce her threat and after that little scuffle the other day he had no desire to anger the female Magus. He had no desire to end up in a smoking crater because he made the girl angry.

"Hmph. I said you would take responsibility didn't I." Rin huffed and turned away from Shirou with a blush on her cheeks. After a moment of silence she turned her head slightly to glance at the boy. "So, how are you adjusting?"

"Ah, I'm okay." Shirou scratched his cheek nervously, "I mean, I'm a little tense but that's to be expected, right." He laughed a little nervously at the way that Tohsaka stared at him. The female Magus was a little miffed that the boy wasn't taking this seriously.

"Not to worry. While creating this form I included a large variety of battle power. Though for now he'll have to rely on magic blasts and such." The sentient wand boasted. "With time he will gain experience and courage to become a true Knight of Justice."

Rin stared at the device halfheartedly. "How reassuring."

"Don't worry too much Tohsaka. I'm sure I can handle this." No, Shirou was not sure he could handle this, but Tohsaka was counting on him so it wasn't like failure was an option.

"Alright, I'm counting on you." Rin led Shirou over to the center of the field. "This is where the class card is currently residing."

"Here?" Shirou looked around at the field and tried to spot any differences in the empty field. When that proved fruitless he tried to sense for any magical energy. His ability as a Magus was low but his sensitivity to magic has always been spot on. There was nothing. The field was just an empty field. "Are you sure it's here Tohsaka?"

"Not here exactly. It's in another world. Ruby, if you would?"

"Alright, alright." The wand began to glow and a small magical circle surrounded both Shirou and Rin. "Mirror Gate formation, opening the gate to the Mirror World."

"Wha- what's going on?" Shirou looked around at the magic sigil in confusion.

"We're going to the card's world. Think of it as two mirrors reflecting each other for an infinite amount of times. This world is just a single reflection. A mirror image of the real world."

The light from the circle died down and Shirou looked at his surroundings. It was just like Rin said, a reflection of their world. The field, the school building behind him it all looked the same. Yet this was definitely not his world. The sky looked like someone ran a grid over it and the atmosphere of the place was different. It was almost like the air was thick with malevolent energy.

"Look there's no time for all the little details. The card is about to appear in the center of the field." Rin pointed at the center of the field. A distortion in the air appeared in the center of the field and quickly grew in size. When the thing had reached maximum size a hand burst out of the distortion and grabbed the ground. A tall woman in a one piece dress that seemed to be formed out of tattered darkness. Her eyes were covered by an elaborate blindfold and long purple hair that reached down to her ankles finished the picture.

"That's..." Shirou was stunned by the sudden appearance of the beauty.

"It materialized just like the reports mentioned." Rin's voice had broken whatever trance that Shirou had entered. He remembered that this thing was dangerous, and not human at all. "Here it comes!"

The woman crotched down before lunging forward with a large nail attached to a chain. Both Shirou and Rin separated to avoid the whip like strike that the chain made. Rin threw a trio of gems at the Servant and created a large explosion. Yet it was to no effect. The woman was unharmed by Rin's strongest magic.

"Tch. No effect." Rin lamented the fact that she had wasted some of her jewels on an attack that she knew was going to be ineffective. "Well then... I leave this to you Shirou." Rin took off to find some shelter from the battle that was about to start.

"Hey wait, what am I supposed to do?" Shirou watched Rin make her escape before turning back to the purple haired woman that was looking to destroy him. He really wondered what were the odds of something like this happening. Fighting a purple haired woman with a large ass nail on a chain at school.

In the Unlimited Blade Works universe one Emiya Shirou sneezed. This lapse in attention let Rider chain him to a tree by his arm.

Back to our Shirou, he had rummaged through the various skills that Ruby had shoved into his brain through the contract and tried to find something that would help him against the Rider card. The same skill kept repeating in his head, and all he could see were swords. He took the hint and held his hand out. A memory of a sword popped into his head. A beautiful silver blade that-

The manifestation of the Rider class Servant didn't stay still as Shirou was entranced by the sword that he was seeing. The class card rushed the magical knight and booted him in the head. The passive shielding that Ruby applied save Shirou the pain of his head leaving his body but it didn't stop the kick from sending the boy flying backwards.

"Fast!" Shirou recovered quickly, but he couldn't believe the speed at which the Servant was moving. It was beyond anything a human could do. Shirou couldn't understand how he was supposed to fight something on this level. "She's too fast. How am I supposed to hit her?"

"You have some distance, so hit her from a distance and keep her back in sheer firepower. It's the most basic strategy." Ruby's advice wasn't that helpful, but it was better than doing. "Just wave me forward and imagine an attack."

Shirou gripped the magical wand tightly. He felt a little ridiculous but he followed the wand's orders faithfully. An image of an attack was clear in his head, and he swung the wand hard. Light built up and created a trail from the beginning of the swing to the end and a blade of light erupted from trail. The blast easily covered the distance between Shirou and the class card before slamming into it and sending up a cloud of smoke.

"That… that was awesome!" Shirou couldn't stop the grin that appeared on his face. He had seen a small magical blast the other day, but something like this was unreal. For a failure of a Magus that could only do Reinforcement, wielding this kind of power was a brand new experience. "I can't believe you're capable of such power Ruby!"

The wand wiggled in joy from the praise. "Ah, yes I am a pinnacle of craftsmanship. But I am surprised myself. I did not think you would be able to use such a cutting attack right away."

Unfortunately, the blast wasn't powerful enough to defeat the class card, and Rider was definitely treating Shirou as a threat now that it had harmed it. Not that Shirou or Ruby noticed since they were busy talking about how amazing the wand was.

"You idiot, pay attention! Attack it again!"

The voice of the resident Tsundere broke Shirou out of his praise and he caught sight of the Servant charging him. He brought back the wand for another attack, a bullet attack that would be more precise, but before Shirou swung the blade a different attack appeared in his head.

The swing was stopped. The surprise and yelling from both Ruby and Tohsaka was ignored. Shirou had gone to a different world. The boy could feel his free arm raise and-

"Guided by experience, Projection complete." Words escaped from his mouth. Each phrase was a checkpoint to be passed, another skill that was completed. Prana was pulled at a rapid pace from Ruby and the device was surprised as the magical energy flowed through Shirou and was pushed into the air all around them.

"Complete Trace… stand by." Swords, blades of all kinds and from all ages appeared all around the boy. Each one was a flawless blade and each one a prototype of weapons that had become legends themselves. Noble Phantasms, crystallized miracles made powerful by time and belief. Powerful weapons wielded by Heroes and Gods alike. And the teen had created dozens of them.

"Removing all stops." More and more prana flowed into the teen and each and everyone one of his twenty seven magic circuits were used in the creation of legendary weapons. Shirou opened his eyes and saw his enemy darting towards him at an impossible pace. "Complete Trace, continuous fire!"

Each and every blade that was created had fired at Rider like a bullet out of a gun. A hailstorm of legendary blades made from the prana of infinite realms had fallen on the class card and once again a dust cloud had obscured the Servant from view.

Shirou's entire body trembled. His magic circuits ached from the pressure he had just put them through and more than anything he was confused. Where had that attack come from, and when did he learn how to create those weapons. It was Projection magic, but at the same time it wasn't. He had used Projection before, but he could never create something as powerful as those swords. He had not been the one to create those blades, nor was he the one that directed them at Rider. Yet at the same time, it had been him.

"Idiot, you didn't finish her off!"

Once again, Rin was the one that had broken Shirou out of his thoughts. He didn't have the luxury of thinking about his own actions when in battle. He had turned towards the Rider class card and was surprised to see the woman standing. The battlefield was littered with weapons of all kinds and while he could see some wounds on Rider it wasn't nearly enough to finish off the Servant.

A sigil of some sort appeared in front of the crouched woman and Shirou heard a gasp from both Rin and Ruby. All three of them realized what the sigil meant.

"Noble Phantasm." The word escaped Shirou's lips before he could even realize the meaning of the word. It was the second time in minutes that the word had came up, but he didn't have time to analyze the meaning. Once again, that unnatural calm overcame Shirou. His body moved on its own.

A vision flashed before his eyes. The image was there for only an instant but it burned itself into Shirou's mind. A wasteland bathed in twilight, and on that wasteland was an endless amount of swords.

"My body is made of swords…"

Another weapon appeared in his mind. Just like the silver sword from before he knew this one was special. Even compared to the swords he had fired before, this one of beyond them. Except it wasn't a weapon at all. Maybe that was why he felt it was precious. It wasn't meant to be used to harm, but to protect.

"Rh-"

"Bello-"

Both Shirou and the Rider card could finish declaring the names of their weapons, another voice rang out. It was a quiet voice, but it carried across the entire Mirror World.

"Lancer card Include." A blur approached the Rider card at impossible speeds. A blur that Shirou couldn't even see with his Reinforced eyes rushed the Servant.

"Gae…Borg!"

A flash of crimson and the sound of flesh being pierced. The Rider card stood there in shook as a crimson spear was embedded in her chest right where her heart would be. The woman stood there for a moment before disappearing, replaced by a simple card like Tohsaka showed him before.

The weapon that was in his mind disappeared and Shirou regain full control over his body. He stood there speechless at the sight of someone so easily dispatching Rider so easily. Then there was also the fact that the one that had defeated the Class Card was no older than Ilya.

"W-who is that?"

A tiny girl, dressed in an outfit that would have fit right in with Ilya's magical girl shows was standing in front of him. Black hair pulled into a ponytail and held in place with a cute ribbon she would have been an adorable sight was it not for the cold expressionless face she had. In her hands was a wand that looked suspiciously like Ruby and in the other, the class card.

"Class Card Rider… captured." Her voice was quiet and even from a distance, Shirou could tell that every word was deliberate and controlled. It made him wonder, what would drive a child into speaking in such a mechanical way.

It seemed like this card capturing job was about to be a lot more complicated.

...

AN: And so it begins. I don't really know why this took so long to write, but it did. I might take these ideas and condense them into an actual story if I get some good feedback.

Shirou's fighting style is something that I had a hard time deciding here. Ruby has the ability to download alternate versions of Shirou so the little inconstancies are alternate memories taking control. Other than some cameo weapons from Fate Stay Night, I figured that this Shirou would be mostly using the Trace Rapid fire method rather than close up fighting.

I'm terrible with battle scenes so if you could tell me what I did wrong and right that would be great. Heck, any feedback would be appreciated, even if it is blunt.

**Omake Dojo - Fun with the Class Cards.**

**Rider Include**

Shirou looked down at the Class Card in his hand. He knew that he could include the card into Ruby for weapons or even a Noble Phantasm, but they had also learned that it was possible to include a card into the body of a Magus. Shirou felt that the Archer card was the easiest to sync with, but the card didn't really give him any other abilities.

However, today Rin and Ruby wanted him to practice with some of the other cards. So he had picked a card at random and had gotten the Rider card.

He examined the card closely and tried to recall the battle with the Rider class card. It was a fast battle and he seemed to be missing small chunks of the battle, but he did recall that the Class Card had used some sort of oversized nail on a chain.

He wondered if that would be the weapon that he would get.

"Ruby, Include Rider Card." Shirou called out and slapped down the Class Card on the end of the wand.

A flare of light expanded from the wand and blinded him. Shirou closed his eyes to keep the light from blinding him. When he opened them he yelped as he saw nothing but darkness.

"Ah! The card blinded me. What am I going to do? How am I going to fight?"

Ruby sweatdropped as Shirou panicked and ran straight into a wall almost knocking himself out. It seemed that the Rider Card manifested several different things at once.

In Shirou's hand was the brindle that let Rider ride any mythical beast. That would have been fine. The problem was Rider's other Noble Phantasm. Breaker Gorgon, or the blindfold that Medusa wore had appeared over Shirou's eyes. The blindfold was meant to seal away Rider's Mystic Eyes of petrifaction, but it sealed away normal vision just as easily.

Ruby followed his hapless partner and chuckled as the teen had somehow escaped his room and entered Ilya's by mistake. Judging from the feminent screams of both embarrassment and anger, Shirou had found his little sister and not taken the blindfold off yet. The teen could find himself in inappropriate situations faster than harem anime character.

"Oh yes, he may be an idiot, he is very entertaining."

Another set of voices screaming, this time it was the two maids that lived with the Emiya family. Oh yes, very entertaining.

4/15/2011 Edit:

Just some grammar and other problems.


	5. Magical Knight Lyrical Archer

AN: Quick update this time. Just something I thought up.

**Summary:** Just having some fun with Fate Stay Night.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Fate Stay Night or any other spin off that came out of it, neither do I own Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha or any of the spin offs of that series.

**Tales of the Kaleidoscope**

**Kaleidoscope 5: Magical Knight Lyrical Archer**

This universe is a bit different from any of the others that we've seen. This world is not bound so tightly by the rules of Fate. A difference is made years before the fifth Heaven's Feel. A boy is born in Fuyuki City and forged in fire. The boy is burned away and the image of a Hero is burned deep into his soul. Emiya Shirou was created on that day. That will not change.

The change is made when Emiya Kiritsugu leaves Fuyuki city. The man is tired and his body weary. He has done what he could to stop the Holy Grail from ever appearing again, but he no longer wishes to remain in this city where he is constantly reminded of his failure.

So Emiya Shirou does not grow up in Fuyuki City. He finds solace in the fact that the boy he was before is left in that city and that Emiya Shirou can be created in a new environment and that he can follow the 'Hero' that saved him from the fire.

And yet, the story stays the same in the beginning. The boy yearns to be a Hero, and attempts to learn Magecraft. The father leaves constantly in his quest to find the daughter that he promised to return to.

The years pass until Shirou is ten years old.

A simple exchange on a sunny day changes the course of destiny. A distorted boy with the ambition to be a Hero a boy whose fate is normally filled with hardship and trials. On the other side is Takamichi Nanoha , the cheerful girl that is searching for her place in life. The role that she will find will eventually take her beyond the stars themselves. The day these two cross is the day where the Fate of several change. Later, another joins their band. A girl that had only known suffering. Her sad eyes push Nanoha to befriend her, while her tragic past pushes Shirou to save her as he was saved.

Where will this track of destiny take us?

Let's take a peek at the future of this universe, shall we?

…

Shirou didn't really know how it had come to this. He racked his mind and traced his steps for the last few months and tried to figure out where this ending had come from. Maybe he would have a weird dream with the lady and girl in hamaka and bloomers to tell him if he did something wrong.

Shirou stood in the center of the plain and looked up at his two opponents. Floating above him in the sky were two girls his age. A blonde girl dressed in a skin tight and ebony black outfit with the red highlights and belts and buckles, a cape flapping dramatically in the wind. Her expression was cold and efficient. Shirou knew that Fate would not hold back at all.

Across from her was a brunette dressed in white. In contrast to the stylistic outfit of Fate's, Nanoha's was simple, a white dress and a white jacket with black highlights. Shirou could tell that the girl was determined to win. There was simply too much at stake.

Shirou himself looked down at his own outfit. It was an outfit that he had seen in a dream. Black armor, sculpted to the muscles underneath his body, and a blood red coat that fell around him like a long skirt.

The three stood still in the field as they prepared for battle. It was Shirou that broke the peace and made the first move.

"Trace on!" Shirou cried out as he summoned his weapon. A black bow, much larger than the small boy, appeared in the boy's hand and several arrows had been created in his other. The teen fired the arrows at both girls at a pace that resembled gunfire more than archery.

The girls each defended against the arrows in their own way. Fate dodged and weaved around the arrows with her inhuman speed while Nanoha endured the assault with a powerful barrier. Undisturbed by the arrows that slammed into her barrier, Nanoha prepared her counter attack.

Nanoha summoned five orbs of light around her as her barrier intercepted the arrows. The five orbs were launched down at the teen before Nanoha's attention was shifted back to Fate. She knew that trying to keep track of Shirou after an attack like that would be pointless. He would use the smoke screen to disappear and find a good vantage point to snipe one of them out.

The blonde girl took advantage of Nanoha's lapse in attention to flank her and prepare a powerful spell of her own. "Photon Lancer!"

Shirou watched as lights danced in the sky as both Nanoha and Fate traded beams. The teen had barely managed to shoot out three of the five orbs from Nanoha's Divine Shooter and relied on his own speed to dodge the last two. He had escaped into some cover and watched the exchange of attacks in the sky closely, he would only have one shot at this.

Shirou Traced another weapon. This time he had created a sword. The sword was twisted and resembled a drill more than a blade. Light gathered around the sword and it changed shape, it became more aerodynamic, more like an arrow. Magical energy flowed through the teen and poured into the transformed weapon. More and more magical energy filled the weapon until it became fragile, the sheer amount of energy contained in the sword broke it.

"Broken Phantasm." The teen whispered as he released the charged weapon. A streak of crimson cut through the air.

Unfortunately, both Nanoha and Fate had sensed the buildup of magical energy and when the crimson arrow shot towards them both had prepared their own defenses. Yet, a Broken Phantasm was nothing if not dangerous. The explosion ripped through Nanoha's barrier and sent or tumbling through the air and the shockwave of the blast had knocked Fate off balance.

Having taken his shot, Shirou disappeared once more. He knew that both Nanoha and Fate could easily eclipse his own firepower with ease. The boy would have to keep his location hidden to maintain his advantage.

"Thunder Breaker." Shirou heard Bardiche's voice tone out and swore. A massive blast of yellow energy cut through the area and force him to reveal his position.

"Close but no dice." The red clad boy summoned a pair of white and blade Chinese blades, the swords that were the easiest for him to Trace and rushed Fate. Shirou unleashed a barrage of slashes against the girl to keep her on the defensive and prevent her from escaping into the sky. The last thing he needed was her to start bombarding him from the air.

Fate calmly defended against the swords with her staff and barrier. When an opening presented itself the girl swung down the staff and slammed it into the ground. A burst of yellow energy forced Shirou to stop his own assault and retreat.

"Lightning Bind."

Right into the trap that Fate had set. Bands of magical energy snapped around Shirou and kept him from moving. The teen struggled and quickly tried to break free.

Back in the air, Nanoha had regained her position and had been preparing her own assault. Magical energy gathered into a tight sphere in front of her ready to be unleashed on her enemies.

"Starlight Breaker!" Nanoha yelled as she swung Raising Heart forward. The moment the device touched the sphere a beam of immense magical power was released.

Fate and Shirou looked up to see the beam traveling towards them. Fate with her specialty being speed had enough time to escape from the blast radius, but Shirou was still trapped by binding magic forcing him to take the attack head on.

"Oh crap." Shirou abandoned the yin ying blades and closed his eyes to look deep within his mind. Beyond all the swords, spears and weaponry that lay within his personal reality, he looked for the Noble Phantasm that he had deemed one of his greatest achievements.

A red flower pulsed in front of Shirou. Rho Aias, the shield that once stopped the spear of Hector was summoned into the modern age reborn as a conceptual weapon. The massive flower shaped shield would take the brunt of the attack. Shirou couldn't fully replicate the shield and out of the seven translucent petals that made the Noble Phantasm, he could only create four. The blast washed over the barrier and Shirou watched as the first pedal was eroded by the sheer force of the blast. The second quickly fell next and then the third. Shirou watched as his final barrier against the attack cracked and shattered before the beam hit him.

Shirou's vision was blanketed by pink and the image of the blast slowly breaking through his barrier and consuming him was the last thing he saw before he lost consciousness.

...

When Shirou woke up from his pink induced coma, both Fate and Nanoha had ditched their barrier jackets in favor for their casual clothing. In turn he let the armor and jacket he was wearing fade back into a small ornament necklace. The necklace hung from a simple black cord and hung down in front of his shirt. On the end was a large red gem that glimmered in the sunlight.

"I can't believe I lost." The child kicked the ground in front of in frustration as he followed both girls out of the barrier and back into town. He had been the first one to fall in their little spar and the ending result had resulted in Nanoha being the winner.

"You should have kept a better eye on Nanoha." Fate spoke softly as the boy huffed in response.

"I still can't believe that she broke Rho Aias so easily." Shirou complained. He didn't expect the shield to block the attack, but he had hoped it would drain enough of the force so that he could continue fighting.

"That was payback." Nanoha chirped loudly at Shirou. "I didn't know that you had a weapon that could cause that much damage. What did you call it again?"

"Caladborg. It's Irish I think. I won't bore you with the history of the thing." Shirou waved tiredly at the both girls who blinked in surprise. Shirou had the annoying habit of gushing over swords and artifacts that he had and it said something about how tired the boy was that he didn't start lecturing the both of the girls about the sword. "It's basically the strongest thing I can use as an arrow."

"It certainly was powerful." Fate nodded as she recalled the explosion that the arrow had caused. "It had a piercing effect of some sort, correct?"

At Shirou's surprised nod Nanoha pointed at him dramatically. "So that's how it got through my barrier. That's tricky." Shirou nodded and would have explained more about his latest weapon but he was interrupted when their destination came into sight. The energetic girl grabbed both Shirou and Fate's hands and tugged them forward. Shirou had long grown used to the action and let himself be pulled along, but Fate had begun to blush as Nanoha gripped their hands tightly and pulled them into the movie theater.

"Come on, we're here!"

Shirou sighed. It wasn't the first time the brunette had gotten him to do something he didn't want to. The trio of children entered the movie theater and approached the cashier.

"Three children please." Nanoha as the victor of their little battle got to choose the movie. When the price came up Shirou was pushed to the front and he dug out his wallet to pay for the three. He was the first to fall so it fell to him to pay for the tickets.

"Come on, come on. The shows going to start soon and I want popcorn." Nanoha resumed dragging Shirou and Fate. Fate once again blushed while Shirou mourned the quick death of his allowance. He had no doubt that he would be tricked into paying for the girls snacks also. Had he known the meaning of the word, Shirou would have called himself whipped.

"Damnit, I will win next time. Do you hear me world? I will be the one to chose our activity next time!" The boy raised a fist to the heavens and vowed to win the next bet. His attempt at being dramatic was thwarted by both Fate and Nanoha dragging him to his doom. A chick flick.

"Noooooo!"

AN: I dunno. I just really liked the idea of Shirou meeting Nanoha. This is just a small interaction thing that I wrote for fun.

I actually had a full blown story through the A's arc and another for the Holy Grail War.

The main idea was that Shirou to move to Uminari meets Nanoha and follows along with the magical girl's adventure. At first the boy is mostly useless, only able to use normal arrows and sorely dangerous and fairly useless Reinforcement. Then by accident he gets a hold of a Jewel Seed. The Jewel Seed reacts badly to Shirou and his memories of the fire in Fuyuki and causes a reaction. A connection between Archer and Shirou is created for a little and Shirou absorbs a large portion of Archer's techniques while at the same time having nightmares of Archer's life.

Shirou attempts to find an outlet for the memories and starts to mimic Archer. The outfit and fighting style are taken from Archer and he starts becoming moody.

After A's and a time skip, Shirou has had enough time to assimilate Archer's memories and knowledge and over comes him. Then Shirou becomes 17-18 and is sent to investigate a problem in Fuyuki City. And we play out the Holy Grail War with Shirou meeting the man he has been dreaming about for years, summoning a Servant that his father had summoned and dealing with a depressed girl that is the catalyst for summoning a evil compared to the Book of Darkness.

The main problem I had with this storyline was that I had no idea how to portray Sakura. Without the history with Shirou, I didn't really have a good idea of how she would act. Eventually I got so frustrated with the planning stage I threw the idea out the window. I'm debating on either trying this, writing more useless omakes, or attempting to write my Kaliedo Archer story.


	6. Fate Lyrical Days

I don't own any of the copied righted material that ends up in this story.

Enjoy

...

This universe is a bit different from any of the others that we've seen. This world is not bound so tightly by the rules of Fate.

A difference is made years ago, a tiny rock that derails the tracks of destiny. A boy is born in Fuyuki City and forged in fire. The boy is burned away and the image of a Hero is burned deep into his soul. Emiya Shirou was created on that day. That will not change.

The change is made when Emiya Kiritsugu leaves Fuyuki city. The man is tired and his body weary. He has done what he could to stop the Holy Grail from ever appearing again, but he no longer wishes to remain in this city where he is constantly reminded of his failures, the death of his lover, and the betrayal of his own ideals. So he leaves the city and doesn't return. He takes the little boy that he pulled from the fires that he created far away from the scorched earth that he found him in.

So Emiya Shirou does not grow up in Fuyuki City. He finds solace in the fact that the boy he was before the fire is left in that city and that his new life as Emiya Shirou can be created in a new environment.

And yet, despite the change in setting there is no change to the boy's dream. Even in this new city, the boy's ideals stay the same. The boy yearns to be a Hero, and attempts and fails to learn Magecraft. The father leaves constantly in his quest to find the daughter that he promised to return to.

The years pass until Shirou is nine years old.

And so the Wheel of Fate turns as always. A distorted boy with the ambition to be a Hero a boy whose fate is normally filled with hardship and trials. His future is filled with swords and battles. On the other side is the cheerful girl that is searching for her niche in life. The role that she will find will eventually take her beyond the stars themselves.

Where will this track of destiny take us?

Let's take a peek, shall we?

...

Hero Slayer Presents:

**Fate Lyrical Days**

**Chapter One: A Mysterious Encounter. A Magus, a Magical Girl, and a Talking Ferret?**

…

_A white room, one that gave off the image of being pristine and unblemished, that is the kind of room that I wake up to. The clean room fills me with an odd sense of comfort. I look around. The room is big and I see many beds filled with different people. Most of them are like me, children that are covered in bandages and hooked up to machines._

_But there is no sense of pain or death. No, everyone in this room had been hurt but now they are healing. These people were safe. I was safe._

_I relax and let my eyes wander outside of the room. My sight falls to the window against the wall, or rather what's outside the window. The sky looked so beautiful. My eyes were captivated with the bright blue sky that seemed to go on forever._

_It took me a few days to remember. I eventually recall what had happened to me._

_There had been a terrible fire, one that had consumed the town, or a small part of the town. I had been saved and was in the hospital wrapped in bandages. Just me. My parents, my family were gone. The situation didn't make sense to me at the time, but there was some part of me that understood. I was alone now. I like to think that I understood that fact quickly, that I absorbed the knowledge with the rest of the children that surrounded me._

_But after that. When I had accepted the fact that I was alone, when thoughts of what would happen to me filled me with panic and worry, that man came. He came the day my bandages came off. An unkempt man that was dressed in a wrinkled coat. This was the first time I spoke to Emiya Kiritsugu._

_"Hello. You must be Shirou."_

_A smile that seemed to reflect the sunlight streaming through the window. His voice sounded a bit odd, but I thought it was a very kind voice. _

_This was the man that offered to adopt me. He looked like a man with no future, but it was either him or the orphanage. So when he asked, I decided to go with him. He seemed happy with the choice and messily began to pack up my stuff. _

_"Ah, I forgot to mention something important. I have to tell you one thing before you come with me. Is that okay?" He turned to me and lightheartedly and said, "Yeah, to start off with. I'm a sorcerer."_ _He said it in a serious and exaggerated tone. _

_Honestly, I was really a child back then. I automatically believed those words. Maybe it was the way he said it or the expression on his face, but I didn't doubt the man for a second. It was that single instant that it happened._

_"Wow, you're awesome." I looked up at the amazing man in front of me._

_This moment was the catalyst. It was probably as I said those words that my path was set. If I could use magic, I could be like this man who saved me._

_Ever since that day I had been that man's son. I even took up his name, Emiya. _

_Emiya Shirou. Just hearing the sound of that used to bring a smile to my lips. Just the sheer fact that I shared his name brought me joy. This was the man I would be chasing for the rest of my life. _

…

"Emiya-kun, Wake up!"

The loud shout along with the startling noise of a ruler crashing down on a desk sends Emiya Shirou out of his dream and back into the real world. It also had the side effect of scaring the boy so much that he threw his body backwards much too quickly for his chair to catch and keep on four legs. For a moment, the boy is suspended in the air with a look of horror and surprise on his face. The moment ends and the chair tips.

"Wah!"

Crash!

The ten year old boy had toppled over and even managed to catch the desk behind him with the back of his head. The entire class winced in unison before laughing at the boy's misfortune.

"Ow…" Shirou whined as he rubbed the back of his head. He looked up from the ground to see his teacher standing over him with an angry expression on her face. "A…ahahaha…" He laughed sheepishly before resigning himself to the lecture that the teacher was going to give him.

As the nine year old stood in the corner holding the punishment sign that had the words 'Slept in Class' on it, he thought about the dream he just had. It had been a while since he had dreamed of his first meeting with his adoptive father, or anything else that had to do with Fuyuki City. His dreams were usually a lot more violent and nightmarish. His dreams were normally filled with fire.

"Hmm." Shirou yawned and fiddled with the sign around his neck. "Maybe I need to get a better sleeping schedule." The little boy had stayed up all night practicing the Reinforcement magic that Kiritsugu had showed him. He had gotten the basics of forging a Magic Circuit for the magic, but he still hadn't succeeded at properly Reinforcing an object.

The boy felt a sudden weight fall on his shoulders as he recalled his failure. He had been progressing so well lately too. His ability to analyze objects was top notch, if useless from what Kiritsugu had told him, and he had been able to successfully create a magic circuit with nearly a hundred percent success lately. Yet every time he tried to Reinforce an object he seemed to fail. Shirou felt like he was going nowhere lately and that was depressing.

"Shirou!" The boy straightened up at the teacher's voice. "Just because you're in the corner doesn't mean you don't have to pay attention. Now, why don't you tell the class what you plan on being in the future."

Shirou nodded and smiled brightly at his teacher. The nine year old red head knew exactly what he was going to be in the future. His path had been set the day he had been taken in by Kiritsugu, no, it was set the day he had been saved from that fire.

"I'm going to be a super hero." Shirou told the teacher. It was a baseless claim, but the boy said it completely seriously.

The class stayed silent for a moment at the boy's words before the dam broke. The entire class rang out with laughter and even the teacher giggled at the boy's enthusiasm for what they thought was a fictional profession.

"A super hero? Is he joking?" One of his classmates asked the person next to him.

"I don't think so. Emiya isn't the type to joke around." The girl giggled. "He honestly thinks he can be a super hero."

Shirou paid the laughter no mind and ignored the teacher's words about choosing a serious profession. He was used to the laughter and disbelief from other people. They didn't understand the world that Shirou wanted to live in.

…

"You should have taken that project seriously, Shirou-san."

Shirou looked up from his lunch to see his normal lunch companions. The three girls, Nanoha Takamachi, Alisa Bannings, and Suzuka Tsukimura were probably the cutest girls in their grade. They had a tendency to hang around each other and all three were pretty popular. Shirou spent a fair amount of time with the trio. Mostly because he spent a lot of time training with Nanoha's older brother, Kouya, in their family dojo and quickly became friends with Nanoha. The other two girls liked Shirou enough and he quickly became part of their little group.

"Ah, I am taking it seriously Tsukimura-san." Shirou responded and clenched a fist tightly. The fires of his passions burned brightly behind him. "I'm going to be a Hero of Justice and save people."

"Ah, what is with our group? First Nanoha doesn't give an answer at all to the assignment then you give this joke of a speech on being a comic book hero." Alisa sighed as she pressed a hand to her forehead.

"I think that Alisa-chan and Suzuka-chan are more amazing for knowing what they want to do." Nanoha sighed and tried to think of what she would do in her future. So far the choices that were presented to her didn't seem right.

"Ah that's right." Shirou nodded and recalled that while most of the class had vague answers for their future or simply put they were undecided both Alisa and Suzuka had concrete answers for their future. "Alisa-san is going to succeed her parents and Suzuka-san is planning to become an engineer, right?"

Suzuka nodded and smiled at the boy. "Yes. I like machines and such so I thought it would be nice to go into engineering."

Shirou looked over to Nanoha who looked to be deep in thought. "What about you, Nanoha-san. Are you going to take over the Midoriya?" He said referring to the café that the Takamachi owned.

"Hai, that's one option." The girl sighed and stared into the distance. "But I feel like there's something else out there that's more suited for me. I just wish I knew what that thing was."

Shirou took another bite of his lunch box before attempting to reassure the girl. "I'm sure you'll find it eventually." It was unrealistic to find the path you wanted to take at such a young age. Or so Kiritsugu told him whenever he said he wanted to follow in his footsteps.

Suzuka nodded and smiled at the girl. "Yes, you shouldn't take this decision lightly. I'm sure you'll find the path that fits you best." Seeing Shirou agree with her, she turned to the boy and frowned at him in disappointment. "That goes for you too Shirou-san. You shouldn't joke around about your future."

"I'm not joking. I'm going to be a Hero." Shirou retorted. Both Alisa and Suzuka sighed at the boy's stubbornness while Nanoha giggled at all of them.

"Being a hero isn't an occupation you idiot!" Alisa shouted at him. The boy was always so stubborn about things like this. Sure if you ask him to help you with something he'll agree right away, but if you debate the way things worked the boy would dig his heels into the ground.

"Says you." Shirou pouted when he realized that none of the three were taking his future ambition seriously. He really couldn't blame them. They didn't know that people like Kiritsugu were out there saving people. He was chasing after an entirely different world. "There are plenty of Heroes out there."

"Argh, I give up!" Alisa threw her arms in the air. There was no way to convince Shirou when he got like this.

The conversation eventually turned to other subjects and Shirou spent the rest of the lunch period in idle conversation with the girls. Shirou didn't really contribute too much as he was more occupied with his own dreams. The boy somehow completely missed the scuffle Nanoha and Alisa got into until Suzuka asked him to help calm the two down. It eventually degenerated into a three way wrestling match with Shirou valiantly attempting to stop the struggle.

Needless to say, Nanoha won.

…

"Hurry up Shirou!" Shirou wasn't really sure which of the girls had shouted that, but he quickened his pace just the same.

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Shirou rolled his eyes but smiled as the girls ran ahead of him. He adjusted the strap on a duffle bag to a more comfortable position and jogged after the girls.

After school had ended, Shirou quickly gathered his stuff and ran out to meet the girls. Since he had started taking lessons from Kouya, he had been assigned the duty of escorting Nanoha and her friends to cram school. He would grab his extra bag and follow the girls along to make sure they made it safe before running to the Takamachi's dojo for his daily lessons.

It was a daily habit and Shirou quickly learned to keep the idle chatter mostly about neutral subjects or to just keep quiet. He had no real desire to get sucked into girl talk on a daily basis, though he would gladly join any conversation that had to do with cooking. The boy's obsession with cooking had weirded out the girls at first, but they quickly accepted it as one of his quirks. It helped that the boy would share some of his better successes with the girls during lunch.

Today it seemed like the girls wanted to take a short cut through the woods. Shirou had protested lightly stating that it could be dangerous, but it didn't take much for the three girls to convince him. The three girls had a lot of practice with convincing Shirou to do something against his will and had gotten very good at it.

Shirou followed the trio of girls and started going over the forms and attacks that he would be practicing today with Kouya. He didn't really mind walking the girls to cram school but he would rather be training. His thoughts were halted when he bumped into someone.

"Ack." The boy looked up to see that Nanoha had stopped in the middle of the path. The girl looked distracted and she was staring at something in the distance. "Nanoha?"

"Didn't you hear that?" Nanoha tilted her head and tried to find the source of the sound.

"Hear what?" Shirou looked around for any noise. He hadn't been paying much attention to their surroundings. Before he could even try to locate the noise, Nanoha had taken off into the woods. "Oi, Nanoha!"

Shirou chased after the girl. He normally would have no problem keeping up with the girl but weighted down by his kendo bag the boy had a hard time keeping up with the girl.

"It came from over here!" Nanoha called back to them. She pointed out a small clearing in the woods.

Shirou picked up his pace and silently wished he could just magic himself over there. When he reached the clearing he looked around for any sign of a person hurt or in danger, but the clearing was empty. "Nanoha, I don't see anyone."

"Ah…" Nanoha stepped in front of Shirou and knelt down on the floor. In front of her was a ferret curled up on the ground. Judging from its beat up appearance the thing had been injured somehow. Shirou sighed and mentally yelled at himself for feeling disappointed that there was no one to save.

"N-nanoha, Shirou, why did you start running like that?" Both Alisa and Suzuka had caught up to the two of them. At the sight of the wounded animal both of the girls joined Nanoha and started cooing over it. "It's injured. We need to take it a hospital, no a vet."

Shirou sighed as the girls started panicking over what to do with the ferret and took charge. He reached into his kendo bag for some soft material. He found an extra shirt and used it to wrap the ferret in and keep it warm. As he picked up the ferret and wrapped it in the shirt his hand brushed over the red gem that hung on its collar. A small shock rushed through up Shirou's arm and he paused for a moment. He stared at the animal intently before brushing it off as nothing. "Come on, there should be a vet around here somewhere, right?"

Alisa nodded and pulled out her cell phone. Shirou guessed that the girl had a map or something on the thing as she nodded and started running in a direction. "There's one over in this direction." She shouted back to them.

Shirou adjusted his kendo bag before running after him. A stray thought went through his head. Magic was real after all, why couldn't magical animals be real too? He gave the ferret one curious look that quickly shifted over to Nahoha as he recalled her saying she heard something. Maybe there was something special about it after all.

…

The key to success is both a strong mind and a strong body. Those words were spoken to him by Kiritsugu Emiya. When Shirou had finally gotten Kiritsugu to agree to teach him magic the first thing they did was exercise. It didn't make much sense to Shirou until later, but the key to magic was not only study but having a sturdy body also. Shirou wasn't really sure how their exercises turned into Kendo sparring, but learning swordsmanship had become something of a hobby for the child.

When Kiritsugu first left on one of his many trips, Shirou found himself without a sparring partner. He had tried to join the school's Kendo club, but he felt that the club was too rigid and that the sport based swords style was too gentle for his tastes. So he had looked for any dojo in the area to join. His search had been rather fruitless until he made his displeasure known in class. Nanoha had told him that both her brother and sister practiced a family style and Shirou had immediately latched onto the girl and begged her to ask them to teach him. Oddly enough, they had agreed.

So Shirou spent several days in the week training with one of the Tachamichi family after school. It had started out as Miyuki teaching him, but most of the time it was Kouya teaching him.

It was something that Shirou himself enjoyed on a great level. Both Kouya and Miyuki were extremely good at swordsmanship and in the years that Shirou had been studying under them, not once had he scored a point on either of them.

Shirou gasped for breath as he blocked a flurry of attacks. His hands were covered with sweat and his practice sword grew heavier with every block and every swing. He attempted to twist away from his assailant for a breather. But it was not meant to be.

"You're open!" His teacher called out before applying his own practice sword to Shirou's head.

Whack! Thud!

"Gah!" Shirou fell on the ground and dropped his practice sword in favor of holding his head with his hands. Beneath his hands was the start of a small bruise. If you looked closer you would see several similar bruises on his arms and there was no doubt there were similar bruises on the boy's body. "Owwy…"

Kouya sighed but couldn't help the amused smile on his face. When Nanoha had first asked him to train a friend of hers from school, he had been skeptic at best. But Shirou had already learned the basics from Kiritsugu and he was an attentive student, so the training continued. The boy was almost unnaturally determined to become strong but there were moments like this in the middle of training that showed the boy's age. In the middle of battle the boy's focus was unbreakable, but the moment the battle was over the boy had no qualms about complaining, politely of course.

"I think we've done today Shirou." Kouya tossed the boy a water bottle and chuckled as Shirou greedily drained the entire thing. "You seem a bit distracted, any reason why?"

Shirou finished his water and shook his head. "It's nothing. I-" Shirou paused in the middle of his statement. What was bothering him? They had dropped the ferret off at a vet and the girls went off to cram school. Then Shirou had left for his lesson from Kouya, but he couldn't concentrate. There was nothing that should have bothered him and yet here he was, completely distracted from his training.

Kouya dismissed Shirou for the day and told him to come back when his mind was clearer. Shirou sighed and slowly made his way back home. The boy dragged his feet. He didn't really have much to look forward to. Kiritsugu was out on another errand for a few days. He probably had another night spent practicing his Magecraft and failing as usual. The Emiya residence in Uminari city was a far cry from the traditional estate that Shirou vaguely remembered when Kiritsugu first adopted him. A two story western style house, the Emiya residence was no different than any other house on the block. The only difference between Shirou's home and the rest was the subtle Boundary Field that surrounded the house. It was something that Kiritsugu had built as soon as they moved in. The Boundary Field was a warning system that alerted any of the users if someone entered the area with violent intentions.

"I'm home." Shirou's voice echoed throughout the empty house before he tossed his bag in the corner of the living room. There was no reply of 'Welcome Home' or 'How was your day?' but Shirou never expected an answer. He had grown used to the act of returning to an empty home and even the few times Kiritsugu was home he rarely gave answered the call back without some prompting. He gave a brief thought of how his father was doing before turning his attention to the kitchen. His last attempt at beef stew had been a failure, but he was sure that he could get the recipe to work this time.

…

The room that Shirou sat in was Spartan at best. The only objects in the room were a single desk covered in papers, Shirou himself and a single pipe. Magecraft was a dangerous practice and at his current level, Shirou couldn't afford any distractions. A single mistake could cripple him for life at best or even kill him at worst.

It was a lesson that Shirou quickly learned. To learn Magecraft is to walk with death.

Shirou placed a hand over the pipe and began.

Inhale

Focus, clear your thoughts.

Exhale

Empty your mind.

Inhale

Slowly forge the magic circuit.

Exhale

It has to be perfect, or else the nerves that are the materials for the circuit with burn out too early.

Inhale

A rush of heat invades Shirou's body, almost as if someone shoved a blowtorch into his spine and replaced the blood in his veins with lava. His head grew heavy as he pushed past the pain.

A forced exhale through clenched teeth

The Magic Circuit was in place. Shirou had already scanned the pipe with Structural Analysis earlier so he knew exactly where he needed to push his Od into.

Inhale. The oxygen is greedily sucked into the boy's body as he strained to push what little magic he could into the object that he held in his hands.

Reinforcement Complete

The teen let out the breath he had been holding and fell backwards onto his back. His breathing was labored and his face flushed with exhaustion. His entire body felt heavy like he had run a marathon but his elation at success overran any pain or exhaustion. The magus in training struggled back up into a sitting position and looked down at the Reinforced pipe. The feelings of pride and success were quickly dashed when his eyes fell on the pipe. He had been able to push Od into the pipe, but the pipe hadn't been able to take the amount of Prana that was pushed into it. The pipe had warped and twisted and there were parts of the pipe that were completely fractured.

Shirou just stared at the broken pipe for a moment before falling back onto his back. "Damn…" He felt his eyes grow heavy and Emiya Shirou fell asleep contemplating another failure.

…

"…elp…"

"Huh?"

"So…one…hel…me…"

Shirou groaned and slowly roused himself. He opened his eyes and gazed around the room in confusion. The house was empty and Kiritsugu wouldn't be home for another few days. So where was that voice coming from?

Before the voice could be dismissed as being from his dreams, it rang out again. "Hurry, someone come and help!"

Any trace of sleep was brushed aside when Shirou heard that cry. The boy froze and looked around for the source of the voice. He ran out of his house as the voice continued to cry out for help only pausing to grab his wooden practice sword. He ran out into the streets and followed his instinct as the voice echoed in his head. When the voice grew more frantic, Shirou picked up the pace until he reached the source.

"This is…" He had been to this building earlier this afternoon. This is the vet where they had dropped off the ferret Nanoha found. His magical senses were still new but even he could feel the sheer amount of magical energy pulsing out of the building. It was a surprise that no one else had felt something and came to investigate.

"Shirou-kun?" A familiar voice called out from behind him. Shirou spun around and stared at the speaker in complete bewilderment.

"Nanoha? What are you doing here?" It was pretty late at night and there wasn't any reason for the girl to be out here. She was in here pajamas too. But before he could get any answers from the girl the building behind him shuttered as if struck. Both of the children turned around to stare at the building in confusion.

CRASH!

The wall of the building exploded and sent pieces of shrapnel everywhere. Shirou threw himself in front of Nanoha to protect her. When the cloud of dust had settled both of them looked up and saw the creator of the explosion. In front of the nine year olds were two things. The first was the ferret he had just been thinking about. That was fine. He had thought that the animal was a bit different anyways.

It was the other being that was confusing. A black ball of darkness that looked almost like a solid cloud of black cotton with a demonic face on it flew out of the building.

Both of the children stared at the sight of a small rodent being attacked by a magic cloud of darkness for a moment before Shirou snapped out of his shock. "Did… did I just see a magic black fur ball attack a ferret?" Shirou's question was directed more to the air than anything, but Nanoha nodded none the less. The girl's shock was quickly replaced with worry and shock as she remembered what was going on.

"Ah, we have to help Ferret-san!" Before he could stop her, Nanoha ran over and picked up the ferret. Shirou swore as he saw the monster dove down for another attack. Shirou darted in front of the two of them and swung his practice sword before the thing could get to them. The strike was a solid one and knocked the monster back. It quickly reoriented itself and roared at the boy that was in its way. The monster rushed at the boy this time much faster than before.

Shirou raised his sword up to block the strike and felt the monster connect with the wooden blade, but the sheer force of the monster's attack sent him flying across the street. He hit the ground and rolled a few feet before stopping.

"Gah…" Shirou struggled to his feet and look down at his practice blade. His hadn't done anything? No, his strike simply was too light. He just needed to hit it harder or find a weak point. The monster roared and decided to destroy the annoying one that struck it first.

It spiraled into the sky and dove down to crush the small boy with its with body. Shirou saw the thing falling and dove away. The monster shot back into the sky again and attempted to crush the boy several times, only for the boy to dive away before it could strike. Finally it stopped on the ground and shot horizontally at the boy rather than from the sky.

That was just what Shirou was hoping for. The boy rushed forward at the monster to meet the monster's charge. He would meet the monster head on with his strongest strike.

"Ahhh!"

Except it wasn't meant to be. A flash of pink light flared out to the side of them. The monster froze at the sight of the light and stopped in mid air. This left Shirou, who was completely committed to his attack, to miss and smash his sword into the ground. The boy tumbled from overextending but quickly rushed back to his feet to stare at the light in amazement.

"What is that…?" He whispered. It felt completely different than the power that was coming out of the monster. The light faded quickly and left Nanoha standing there confused clutching a staff and in a new dress. "Nanoha?"

The monster roared at the new threat that actually posed a danger to it and rose into the air for another charge. It shot down at the girl causing her to flinch. Shirou swore as he realized that he was too far to knock her out of the way or block the strike. "Nanoha!"

A flare of power once again flooded over Shirou's senses as a pink barrier appeared in front of Nanoha. The monster struggled to smash through like it had with Shirou's guard but the barrier held. The rebound of the force threw the monster backwards and caused it to explode into several gooey pieces.

"Eh…" Shirou couldn't believe his eyes. That was definitely magic. Nanoha Takamachi had just used magic. Ridiculously strong magic at that.

Before Shirou could ask her what was going on, he saw something in the corner of his sight. The pieces of the monsters were moving together and reassembling themselves again.

"What does it take to kill this thing?" Shirou pulled his sword up for another strike when something spoke to his side.

"We're not going to kill it. We need to seal it." Shirou looked at the source of the voice and saw the ferret from earlier.

"It… can talk…" Shirou grinned and pointed at it with a triumphant expression on his face. "I knew it, you are a magical animal!"

"His name is Yuuno and this is his staff." Nanoha giggled at Shirou's excitement as she gestured to the staff in her hands.

"Alright, so how do we seal it?" Shirou asked. He wanted to ask several questions but he knew his priorities. Beat the monster and then came the cool explanations for what's going on. He didn't posses anything near the magical ability to seal something like a monster.

"Nanoha can do it. She just needs some time to figure it out." Yuuno's answer was calm despite the fact that they were fighting a monster at the moment.

Shirou frowned for a moment but quickly came to a decision. "Alright then I'll distract it while she does that."

"No you won't. It's too dangerous." Nanoha was quick to reject his offer but Shirou grinned at her.

"Come on Nanoha. What kind of Hero would I be if I left you to face this thing alone?" After he said that the boy looked down at the wooden practice sword in his hands. It wouldn't be enough to fight a monster. He would need something better. A determined expression crossed Shirou's face. "And you're not the only one that can do magic either Nanoha."

"Eh?" Both Nanoha and Yuuno looked at him in confusion.

"Don't worry about it." Shirou waved them off and ran to confront the reforming monster.

Shirou knew that Magecraft in this kind of situation would be suicide. He could barely form a Magic Circuit in an ideal environment let alone a battle situation, but he didn't really have much choice. Shirou braced himself before declaring his aria.

"Trace… On!" Fire flooded into Shirou's veins once more as he hastily formed a Magic Circuit. He ignored the familiar pain and tried to estimate how much the wooden sword could take without using Structural Analysis for an extended period of time. The blueprint of the practice blade formed in an instant. The shape of the wood, the miniscule cracks that were unseen to the naked eye and even the polish were all mapped out in a single moment. Od flooded through Shirou's crudely constructed Magic Circuit and into the blade itself. The Od rushed into the blade and made it stronger, Reinforcing the structure of the practice sword done to its basic elements.

Finally the intense moment was over and the fire faded from his veins. Shirou shakily looked up to see that the monster had finished reassembling itself. It dove down at him. On well trained instinct the boy rolled to the side just in time to dodge the strike. The monster's blow drove a crater into the ground but it quickly shot out of the dust cloud that the attack had create.

The boy didn't think. He just acted. He tightened his grip on his sword and rushed forward at the monster. It would all come down to this. If he succeeded he would win, if he failed then the sword would break and the monster would kill him. It was simple as that. No other thoughts were necessary.

Shirou jumped up and swung at the monster before it could recover and strike again. The wooden practice sword smashed into the monster and roughly carved through the black substance that it was made of.

Shirou landed on his feet and looked down at his practice sword in amazement. "I can't believe it…" He whispered. A normal wooden sword would have never been able to do that. It would have broken under the pressure of that kind of blow but the wooden practice sword didn't have any new cracks on it. That meant that he had succeeded! He had used proper Magecraft for the first time!

"Shirou, look out!"

The mental celebration that Shirou was planning on having was cut short as the monster roared again and reformed itself. It rocketed down in another rush. Caught off guard, Shirou wasn't able to dodge in time and twisted around to block.

The strike knocked the practice sword backward into Shirou's body and knocked him across the area once more. His aided flight was interrupted by the wall of the animal clinic. He slid down the wall and curled into a ball in pain. The initial strike hadn't been that bad, but he could have sworn that he felt a rib crack when he crashed into the wall.

"Ugh…" The Magus in training pressed a hand to his and winced when the light pressure caused pain. "That didn't work as well as I hoped."

"Jewel Seed Seal!" Nanoha's voice calling out was a relief to the boy as he had no idea how he was going to keep the thing busy for another second.

Shirou watched in amazement from the wall as the staff that Nanoha held sent pink ribbons made of magic out and wrapped them around the monster. The beast roared one last desperate roar as it struggled against its bonds. Then it froze as the Roman numeral for twenty one lit up between its eyes and it dissolved.

"That…was pretty cool." Shirou admitted to himself. When he heard that Nanoha had to seal it, he had to admit he was expecting worse. A lot of posing and girly backgrounds, not chains of magic and a cool light show.

A small jewel dropped to the ground. Shirou picked himself up and slowly made his way to the jewel and watched as Nanoha poked it with the staff. The jewel glowed for a moment before disappearing into the staff.

"Receipt number twenty one." The staff spoke in a rather mechanical voice as it lit up the Roman numeral to match the number it just spoke.

"So the staff is sentient?" Shirou looked over at the device in curiosity. He knew that magic was out there, but so far all he knew about was Magecraft. He knew that powerful artifacts and Mystic Codes could be enchanted with intelligence but he had never seen one before. He would have asked more questions but a small noise at his feet caused him to look down at the collapsed ferret.

"Yuuno!" Nanoha ran over to the small animal. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine." Yuuno reassured the girl. "We should get out of here before we're noticed though."

"Ah…" Shirou flinched when he heard sirens approaching the area. Magic was to be kept a secret. That was another lessons that Kiritsugu beat into his head. "We should go, like right now."

"Ah…" The staff that Nanoha was holding disappeared along with the new dress she was wearing. "Let's run!"

Shirou grabbed Nanoha's wrist and took off. The both of them ran for a while until they entered a park. Since it was so late the entire park was empty. Shirou stopped to catch his breath. The adrenaline from the battle was starting to fade and he could feel his ribs strain when he breathed too deeply. The two of them along with Yuuno sat down on a bench to talk.

"Alright." Shirou loomed over Yuuno and resisted the urge to poke him a few times. "So you're magical?"

"Well yes." Yunno paused to get comfortable. "It's a long explanation but first. I am sorry for getting you involved in this."

Shirou waved off his apology. "Don't worry about it. This kind of thing is what I've been training for."

"Oh." Nanoha thought of something and paused to introduce them. "My name is Takamachi Nanoha and this is Emiya Shirou."

Yunno gave a small bow. This looked a little cute since it was a small ferret doing the bowing. "I am Yuuno Scrya. I am glad to make your acquaintance." He introduced himself. Shirou noticed that the ferret spoke rather formally.

"As for me and that monster." Yuuno paused for a moment to gather his thoughts. "It's my fault. I was the one to find them so I am the one responsible for collecting them again. They are called Jewel Seeds."

Shirou listened intently as the ferret began his explanation. He had learned quickly that not paying attention during important explanations was dangerous. He had fallen asleep during a lecture from Kiritsugu about forming Magic Circuits and when he tried to fill in the blanks by himself… well… let's just say that he learned his lesson.

"My clan and I are archeologists." Yuuno continued, a little nervous at the attention that Shirou was paying him. "It was on a dig that I found them. They are part of an ancient civilization, and particular artifacts of this classification are called Lost Logia. The Jewel Seeds are believed to be capable of granting wishes, but as that creature showed, they can have far different effects."

"So someone wished for that creature?" Nanoha asked as he tilted her head.

"Not exactly. We don't really know what their original purpose was. But they run on desires. So if there is no one around when they activate, their effects are random and unpredictable. So we decided that it would be best to have them sealed and stored." Yuuno curled up in Nanoha's lap and continued. "Instead they were scattered across this world during transit. I was the one that found them, so I am going to be the one to seal them back up. I just need to rest first. I just need a few days.

"We'll help." Nanoha smiled. "Right Shirou?"

Shirou nodded. "Of course. A Hero would never leave something like the Jewel Seeds out in the open where they can hurt people. Anyways…" Shirou scratched the side of his cheek. "I kinda want to see more of your magic anyways."

"You can't." Yuuno shot to his feet. "It's my responsibility!"

"And you're in no shape for monster hunting." Shirou frowned. It was a little selfish, but he wanted to do this. He wanted to be a Hero. So he wasn't about to accept the ferret's reasons so easily. "We can't just leave them alone. People'll get hurt."

"Right!" Nanoha nodded. Then she remembered something and turned to Shirou. "Ah that's right. Shirou-kun, what did you do earlier when you cut the monster?"

Shirou blinked and then remembered that he had Reinforced his sword. He had done Magecraft!

Yuuno paused in his attempts to persuade these two from doing this and looked at the boy. "That's right. I don't think a wooden sword would have done that much damage. Not to mention you said something before you struck the monster."

"Race on. I think." Nanoha tilted her head at the odd English phrase.

"Ah…ahaha…" Shirou laughed nervously before sighing. "It's 'Trace On.' It's my personal aria for Magecraft."

"Magecraft?" Both Nanoha and Yuuno repeated in confusion.

"Yes. I Reinforced the sword with my Magecraft." Shirou nodded. "I am one who uses Magecraft. I am a magus."

"Magus… I didn't know that Earth had magic users." Yuuno stared at the boy curiously before making a decision. "Shirou, would you mind holding Raising Heart."

"Huh?" Shirou blinked when Nanoha handed him the red gem that used to hang around Yuuno's neck. He rolled the gem with his fingers for a moment before he felt something odd. Shirou closed his eyes and felt something tug at him.

"Access Denied, mana levels insufficient." The gem flashed as it chimed back.

"Huh, it didn't work?" Shirou frowned. He didn't really expect the thing to work, but he couldn't say he didn't hope that he could use the staff too. Still, he wasn't too disappointed. He wasn't a proper magus so he didn't have Magic Circuits to channel magic.

"Raising Heart requires a certain amount of magic energy to activate. If the user's magical stores don't match a certain level then it will deny the user access." Yuuno yawned and curled into a ball. "Even at its lowest levels you would probably be drained after a week or so of constantly feeding it mana. You do have magic just not a lot of it." That was interesting. He wondered if this planet had adapted to lower magic levels and created magic from that.

"So Nanoha has a lot of mana then?" Shirou stared at the girl. She didn't seem like a magus like Kiristugu, but then again this was a different type of magic. Maybe it required a different type of mana.

"Master Shirou's magical level rating is inconclusive, this unit places it at Rank D-. Master Nanoha's magical level rated at rank A." The device lit up as it ranked the both of them.

"Rank?" Shirou wondered what that meant exactly.

"E through S plus." Yuuno mumbled. "D is below average and A rank is something like one in one thousand on Mid-Childa. That's just magical level. Most people can't really use it right even if they have enough magical energy."

Yuuno's words sunk into Shirou's mind and he realized a harsh truth. "Huh, so I'm a failure at this magic too." Shirou muttered to himself.

"Incorrect. Master simply does not match the magical threshold needed to activate this device. Magical pathways are unused but properly formed." The device replied to Shirou's muttering. He looked down at the gem in confusion.

"Magical pathways…?" Shirou repeated. The statement sunk into the boy's mind immediately and he had to suppress the urge to start shaking the device and demanding it explain what it meant.

"I think we should go home." Nanoha lifted a now sleeping Yuuno carefully. "We can talk about this later."

"Right..." Shirou didn't want to leave just yet, but his ribs still hurt and he was too tired to think straight. He got to his feet and winced at the pain he felt in his chest. He pressed a hand to it and found that the pressure didn't hurt it anymore. He would have to be careful on his way home, but he should be fine.

"Are you okay?" Nanoha frowned at his pained expression. "That monster hit you pretty hard."

Shirou tried to reassure her, but he moved to quickly and winced in pain. "Don't worry about it. I'll be a little sore tomorrow but this isn't anything worse than when I spar with your brother." That was a blatant lie. Kouya never hurt Shirou this badly once during their spars.

"If you say so." Nanoha didn't seem convinced but let it go. "Then I'll see you tomorrow Shirou."

Shirou nodded and started his long painful walk back to his house. It was only after a few painful steps that Shirou realized a big problem.

"Which way is my house?"

…

_AN: Here it is. The pilot chapter is posted. I can't believe I finally posted this thing. This idea has been sitting in my head for such a long while so you can't imagine how nice it feels to see it started._

_When I first had this idea, it was mainly just a funny thought after writing my idea about Kaleido Archer omake and rereading Nanoha One Half by Lost Star but I wrote a small omake of how I wanted it to look and fell in love with the idea. _

_Though as much as I loved the idea, it was a hassle to plan out. The biggest problem was unfortunately Shirou. Other than an off comment about how serious he was about being a Hero we don't get much characterization about him. So I had to mold him from what is basically scratch. His character is a little shaky but I'll figure it out. _

_I wrote out a really basic outline of how I want this story to pan out, but we'll see how far this goes. I plan on posting this here in my Omake Files to see if it gets some feedback, and if it's positive I'll post it as its own story and get to work on it. Also if nothing else, leave a review on what you think of the Title. Fate Lyrical Days looks so unoriginal to my eyes and if you have a better idea for a title please leave your ideas in the form of a review._


	7. Shirou the Immortal

Shirou the Immortal

Because Avalon is an EX ranked Noble Phantasm and that means screw the rules I have the sheath of Excalibur inside my body.

…

People die when they're killed.

You know, except for me.

-Emiya Shirou

…

"Ah…guh…"

I feel a bit sick. My head throbs and my chest feels like it's on fire. I open my eyes and find myself lying in a puddle of my own blood. I press a hand to my blood soaked shirt and find a hole in my shirt, but the moment my hand came in contact with my skin a fresh batch of pain flares up.

"Guh… What happened?"

I look around to find some clue about my state, but all I can see is the empty school hallway. Well that and the puddle of blood that I'm lying in.

It takes me a moment because of the headache, but I eventually remember what happened.

Woke up, got thrown out of the kitchen by my (admittedly attractive but I'm trying not to think of that) underclassmen, went to school, ignored another request to rejoin the archery club, fixed some stuff for Issei, and cleaned up the archery dojo because Shinji is lazy as hell.

That was normal.

Then there was this crazy guy in blue with a red lance fighting some white haired guy in red with swords that I saw outside the school. I did the smart thing and decided to walk away. Sadly, I walked right onto a twig and alerted the two guys with weapons to my position. I hightailed it, but the guy with the lance chased after me and then stabbed me in the chest.

Yeah, I'm going to guess that was why I'm lying in my own blood.

I look around the hallway and frown at my blood on the floor. It kind of looks like a murder scene, then again it probably was supposed to be a murder scene.

I stare at the blood for a moment before shrugging.

"Well, this isn't going to clean itself up."

Leaving a pool of blood behind always causes questions. It's easier to just clean it up and convince anyone that they were hallucinating and that no, I did not get stabbed in the chest, or hit by a car, or impaled by that branch.

I stumble a bit towards the cleaning closet and wonder why my chest hurts so much when I ran into trouble.

"Guh! You?!"

"Tohsaka?"

Tohsaka Rin, the school idol, was standing in front of me along with that creepy white haired guy in the red coat that was fighting the guy that stabbed me.

She is looking at me in complete surprise and the guy in red is even more surprised, though he quickly schools his expression to something along the lines of annoyance.

"Emiya-kun?!"

"Uh…"

There is a bit of silence between the three of us and I struggle to find something to say. I look down at my blood soaked shirt and the puddle of my own blood behind me and say the first thing that popped into my head.

"I'm going to clean that up, I swear."

Yeah, in retrospect, maybe Fuji-nee was right and I need to clear up my priorities.

Tohsaka presses her hand to her face for a moment and I think I might have given her a headache. I recognize the expression on her face. Kiritsugu used to have that expression whenever I would come home and tell him that I died in some strange way and needed help convincing someone that it never happened.

"Emiya-kun…"

The Guy in the Red Coat stepped protectively in front of Tohsaka.

"Rin, look at his chest. He should be dead."

I saw the conflict on Tohsaka's face and realized that I should probably defend myself. Instead, I agree with Mr. Red Coat.

"Pretty much. I mean, that guy got me right in the heart. Hell, it even took me more than a second to heal so it was pretty serious." I poked my chest and wince a little at the pain.

Stupid magical weapons. The only thing worse was shrapnel. Tiny little things took forever for my body to push out.

Any indecision was wiped clean from Tohsaka's face and is replaced with a smile.

It's a cold smile.

"I see. A Dead Apostle hiding right here in my city."

"Wait, what?" Any attempt at clearing the air or defending my humanity are cut down when Tohsaka turns to Red Coat and gives him a single order.

"Archer, wipe him out."

I really didn't like the expression of glee that came over Mr. Red Coat's face before he pulled a pair of swords out of nowhere. So I ran away as fast as my legs can take me.

…

"Hate… my… life…" I managed to gasp out as I ran the last few feet to my house.

It's not that I was out of shape or that the distance was too large. Despite the fact that I quit the Archery Club, I still work out regularly and I'm in admittedly decent shape.

I was gasping for breathe because of the four arrows that were imbedded in my body and the damage from the magic swords that kept blowing up around me. Well that, and the shrapnel in my body.

God I hate shrapnel. I think there is a piece in my lungs since I keep coughing up blood.

Yeah, it turns out that when Tohsaka called the white haired guy Archer, she was not joking. I thought she might have been joking because the guy stabbed me and then threw a couple swords at me at first. But then after I got out of the building he started shooting arrows at me.

He had hit me with a lot of arrows too. I stopped pulling out any arrows that were not in my legs just to save time. Around the time I had reached the halfway point to my house the arrows stopped.

Unfortunately this was when the exploding arrows started showing up (though a quick glance at one revealed that they were swords not arrows). Thankfully after the third explosion failed to stop me, the guy finally gave up.

By the time I opened the front door, my body had managed to push out the shrapnel and arrows that were lodged in my chest and right arm. The ones in my stomach I pull out once I was safe inside my house.

"Okay… I think I'm safe now."

Of course, it was at that moment I notice the bell hanging from the ceiling was ringing this entire time.

The bell was hooked up to the Boundary Field around the house. Oh right, I have not explained that yet.

I'm on a time crunch so short story. Real parents died in a fire. I was the sole survivor. The guy who saved me adopted me. New Dad happened to be a magus. Taught me a little but I suck at it. So yeah, I'm a little magic.

The Boundary Field around the house is an alarm system. If a stranger enters with hostile intent, the bell rings. Like right now.

"Damnit, what's with this timing?"

Seriously. Blue Guy stabbed me with lance, Red Guy, sorry, Archer, filled me with arrows and now I have someone trying to sneak into my house to most likely try to kill me. It better not be Archer. I swear to god if he could teleport I was just going to give up and let him gut me until he gave up.

Stupid secret society of magic. Stupid dad for not notifying the Second Owner that we were Magus. Stupid murdering psychos in odd clothing.

I ignored the shiver that runs through my spine and try to spot the house invader.

Instead of spotting a person, I noticed the large red spear erupting out of my chest.

Dear god in heaven that hurts like hell.

I choked a bit on my blood, and I think a piece of one my ribs, and turn my head to see the guy in blue that stabbed me at school standing in my house holding the other end of the spear.

"Sorry kid, but you've caused me a lot of trouble today. I was being nice before, but now I'm just a little annoyed."

"Yeah, well your not nice sucks just as much as your nice."

The blue guy stared at me in complete surprise. I guess he was not used to people chatting casually with him after they had taken an obviously fatal blow.

I tried to use the surprise to sucker punch the guy. I say try because even with the shock, Blue Guy still has time to jump back and pull the spear out of my chest. There is a pretty gross slurping sound as the spear comes out and my chest knits back together.

"Well, would you look at that." Mr. Stabby sounds amused as he watches the gaping hole in my chest fill in with bone and flesh until it's back to normal. "I thought you were just some kid. But you must have some impressive magic to do something like that."

"Ow…." Having a spear ripped out of your body hurt just as much as having one shoved through it. That and my heart still hurt from the first stab. Dear god what is that spear made of?

"Maybe I'll be able to have a little fun after all." I tried to raise a hand so I could recover long enough to say something but he was already moving.

I had the pleasure of getting kicked out of my window. Not as cool as television makes it out to me. It turns out that when it happens in real life, glass shards cut into the body and stab you when you land on them.

I ignored the glass shards in my body and pick myself up. I start running towards the shed. I have a ton of junk in there, so I was kind of hoping I had a pipe or something I could use to fight this guy off.

My attacker follows me and stabs me more with the spear. I manage to dodge one or two, but he was striking faster than I could move. Luckily, one of the attacks I dodged hit the door to the shed and knocks it off the hinges.

That was going to be a bitch to fix, but I'll take it.

I stumbled into the shed and took a quick look around.

Nope, no weapons, just a lot of half broken junk.

Damn. I say that both because of the lack of weapons and because of the red lance that is, once again, shoved through my chest.

"Damnit, doesn't this healing thing of your have a limit?" It sounds like my attacker is annoyed by now. Good, hopefully he's feeling part of the pain I'm feeling by having this damn spear inside me for the hundredth time today!

He kicks me in the back hard enough to send my body flying deeper into the shed.

I slammed into the ground and when I do, the floor of the shed lights up like a fireworks display at point blank range.

"Gah!"

Both the spearman and I were pretty much blinded by the light.

And when it fades, I am left staring at the most beautiful blond girl that I have ever seen.

"I ask of you. Are you my Master?"

Oh man, I can already tell, this is going to be a looooong night.

…

It had been a hell of a night so far. I got murdered, got up, got murdered again, got home, got murdered by the first guy again, summoned up a Hero from ancient times and stopped said Hero from murdering my classmate… who tried to murder me earlier today.

Needless to say, I'm a bit lost on what the hell was going on.

"So…."

I glanced at the stunningly beautiful blonde girl in armor that had appeared out of nowhere, Saber I think she called herself, before looking over at Tohsaka. Archer was apparently invisible or something.

We were having a chat since I stopped Saber from slicing her and Archer in half by using a Command Seal or whatever the magic tattoo on my hand is called after Saber fought Lancer off. Tohsaka somehow talked her way into my house, but hey, at least she fixed my window.

"Emiya-kun, I think an explanation would be good right about now." Huh, I didn't know that Tohsaka could sound so sweet and venomous at the same time. No wait, she used the same tone when she ordered Archer to kill me.

But I could use some exposition on what the hell is going on.

"Right, what did you mean by Servant and Holy Grail W-"

"Stop!"

I pause in mid sentence. Tohsaka has one hand out palm out while her other is cradling her head.

"Uh… yes?"

"You were stabbed. Lancer definitely stabbed you. The hole in your shirt when we found you proves that. Judging from the blood in the living room and the tattered remains of your shirt, it looks like he stabbed you several times after that." I'm wondering if there is some magic to kill someone with your eyes. Because it looks like Tohsaka is trying really hard. Not that it would help her at the moment even if she could do that. "So how the hell are you standing here without a single wound on your body?"

"What?" Saber stood up and moved over to me. "Master is that true. We must get you to a healer right away. The wounds from Gae Bolg are not so easily healed and-"

"I'm fine!" I pried myself away from Saber quickly and managed to get some space in between us. I don't think I could keep my composure if she's that close to me. She's just a bit too stunning. "See, no wounds at all. And what about you, you got stabbed by that thing too?"

Saber sternly stares at me. "A Servant is much more durable than a normal human, Master and-"

"Bull." Saber seems a startled at my interruption. "Even if you are stronger than an ordinary person, a chest wound is still something that requires immediate attention. And don't try to change the conversation about my wounds, I'm pretty much immortal so they don't matter."

My declaration is met with a stunned silence.

"Hmm, so you are some sort of Dead Apostle." I hear Tohsaka murmur quietly as she stares at me contemplatively.

I gave her a confused look.

"Dead Apostle?" It takes me a moment to remember what that is. "Oh, the vampire things, right? No, I'm not one of those."

"Impossible. I saw the amount of blood before, Emiya-kun. There is no way you could have survived a wound like that and recovered if it in seconds if you were human." Rin starts muttering under her breathe. I hear a little bit, but it's mostly about monsters and other inhuman things that can regenerate.

"Well I did and I'm human." I defend myself. I was perfectly human. You know, except for the whole immortal thing.

Huh, I didn't know someone could get that red from getting angry. Tohsaka looked like she's ready to throttle the answers out of me.

"I wish I could give you an answer Tohsaka, but I've always been like this. As long as I could remember I healed up from any wound almost instantly. I don't drink blood so I don't think I'm a Dead Apostle."

"Grrr…" Tohsaka continued to glare at me and I could tell that she probably doesn't believe me.

"Yeah… so about this Servant thing…"

Neither Tohsaka nor Saber really gave me an explanation. Saber being more worried about my condition and Tohsaka was busy having an aneurism from trying to get me to spill my secrets.

So I get to take a trip to the church.

….

So the creepy priest guy that I really do not like explained things to me.

Holy Grail War.

Seven Servants.

And a crap load of collateral damage.

Well, I was making it my job to prevent that last one.

"Hello, Onii-chan."

Hey look, it's the cute white haired girl that gave me the cryptic comment two days ago. Something about summoning…

A Servant.

Huh. That probably means something bad is about to happen.

I look at the hulking muscled giant behind her that looked angry and ready to rip me to shreds and decide that I was right.

"Berserker." Tohsaka whispers from behind me. I nod at the comment and decided that the name totally fit the guy in front of me.

The girl giggles and smiles brightly at me.

"This is the second time we've met like this."

The sheer innocence that flowed off the girl does not fit the atmosphere. That dissonance kind of kills the idea that she was here with peaceful intentions, well that and the hulking kill machine behind her.

"Crap, he's on an entire different level." Huh, what do you know, Tohsaka is not frozen in fright. If I was normal I would probably be scared out of my wits. Good to know that she's got her composure.

The tiny girl with the giant rage monster behind her curtsied and introduced herself as Illyasviel von Einzbern. Her name seemed to strike a chord with Tohsaka and Saber, but I draw a blank.

Huh, maybe she's one of those big important Magus names. Dad never taught me those either.

"Then I'll just go ahead and kill you. Berserker, get them." The girl singsonged the last bit a little too happily for my tastes considering she's siccing a giant rage monster on us.

Saber manages to get the raincoat off of her and defend our asses as Berserker came to dismember me and kill Tohsaka.

I am a bit stunned by the awesome display of fighting that followed, but I really couldn't help it. These are heroes of another age and seeing them fight is mindboggling.

The brute strength of Berserker being held back by the technique of Saber is an awe-inspiring sight.

Until I remember that Saber is still injured and that Berserker is trying to kill her.

"Damnit." I start running towards the two clashing warriors. "Saber!"

I manage to get there just after Saber seemed to have reopened her chest wound. Berserker took the opening and went for the killing blow. Saber didn't seem to notice since she was more focused on me running towards her.

"Master what ar-Omph!"

I was able to feel proud of myself as I body checked Saber out of the way of the rock axe thing that Berserker is swinging. You know until the thing actually hits me.

My world turns red and my stomach does not feel right.

I look down and see the reason for that. Half of my stomach is no longer there.

"Guh…" I choke on my own blood and stare at the hole in my abdomen.

"Huh?" Ilya stared at me in surprise before frowning. "That's enough, this is-"

I raise a hand up to stop her. Surprisingly enough, Ilya stopped and just stares at me.

I choke on my own blood a bit as my body knit itself back together. I spat out the last of the blood in my mouth and breathe in some much needed air.

"Okay, that really hurt." I pat my stomach, mainly to make sure that all my organs are inside my body, but also to wipe off some of the blood.

"Alright, sorry Ilya, I interrupted you."

"What?"

She is still staring at me. In face everyone is staring at me. Well, not Berserker. He was staring at Ilya wondering if he should just stand there or continue killing.

"How…what?" Ilya continue to stammer.

Huh, I think I broke her. Then again, most people don't see someone get half their stomach chunked out and then magically repaired.

"Uh… yeah." I wonder if I should order Saber to attack or something. I would really like to just talk to Ilya and maybe her to call this whole thing off.

Ilya is still there staring at me in complete confusion. In fact, nobody is moving. They're all still staring.

"Shirou… what was that?"

Oh thank god. Saber seemed to have regained the ability to speak.

"Well, I said I was immortal. Did you think I was joking?" I rub the back of my neck in a nervous gesture.

See this is why Kiritsugu told me to never tell anyone I'm immortal. It's really awkward.

The awkward silence is thankfully broken by the magical exploding arrow that hit Berserker in the face.

Unfortunately, I am still next to the giant Servant. So the graveyard consuming explosion also hit me.

Damnit Archer!

…

AN: Gasp! He's alive!

So I've been rather absent for a while from the writing scene. Mostly because of school, but also because frankly, I lacked any motivation to write. That has changed, so whee!

Anyways, I wrote this a while back and I only remembered it because of the new Fate Stay Night anime. I continued it to a decent place, but I forgot where I was going with it, so to the crap space it goes.

For those of you waiting for War of the Knight Sky, worry not. The first chapter is finished and is in the editing process. Barring some life changing event or tragedy, it will be posted by the end of the month.


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